27 [i.e. 28] Fryday.

Dined at the Majors. A pleasant Day.—If we examine critically the little Prospect
that lies around us at one view we behold an almost infinite Variety of substances.
Over our heads the sun blazes in divine Effulgence, the Clouds tinged with various
Colors by the refracted Sunbeams exhibit most beautiful appearances in the Atmosphere,
the cultivated Planes and meadows are attired in a delightful Verdure and variegated
with the gay enamell of Flowers and Roses. On one hand we see an extensive Forest,
a whole Kingdom of Vegetables of the noblest Kind. Upon the Hills we discern Flocks
of Grazing Cattle, and on the other hand a City rises up to View, with its Spires
among the Clouds. All these and many more objects encounter our Eyes in the { 30 } Prospect of one Horizon, perhaps 2, or 3 miles [in] diameter. Now every Animal that we see in this Prospect, Men and Beasts, are endued
with most curiously organized Bodies. They consist of Bones, and Blood, and muscles,
and nerves, and ligaments and Tendons, and Chile [Chyle] and a million other things, all exactly fitted for the purposes of Life and motion,
and Action. Every Plant has almost as complex and curious a structure, as animals,
and the minutest Twigg is supported, and supplied with Juices and Life, by organs
and Filaments proper to draw this Nutrition of the Earth. It would be endless to consider
minutely every Substance or Species of Substances that falls under our Eyes in this
one Prospect. Now let us for a minute Consider how many million such Prospects there
are upon this single Planet, all of which contain as great and some a much Greater
Variety of animals and Vegetables. When we have been sufficiently astonished at this
incomprehensible multitude of substances, let us rise in our Thoughts and consider,
how many Planets and Sattellites and Comets there are in this one solar system, each
of which has as many such Prospects upon its surface as our Earth. Such a View as
this may suffice to show us our Ignorance. But if [we] rise still higher in our Thoughts, and consider that stupendous Army of fixt Starrs
that is hung up in the immense Space, as so many Suns, each placed in Center of his
respective system and diffusing his inlivening and invigorating Influences to his
whole Choir of Planets, Comets and sattellites, and that each of this unnumbered multitude
has as much superficies, and as many Prospects as our Earth, we find our selves lost
and swallowed up in this incomprehensible I had almost said infinite Magnificence
of Nature. Our Imaginations after a few feignt Efforts, sink down into a profound
Admiration of what they cannot comprehend. God whose almighty Fiat first produced
this amazing Universe, had the whole Plan in View from all Eternity, intimately and
perfectly knew the Nature and all the Properties of all these his Creatures. He looked
forward through all Duration and perfectly knew all the Effects, all the events and
Revolutions, that could possibly, and would actually take place, Throughout Eternity.1

1. A detached, undated fragment among JA’s literary notes appears to belong to the series of reflections entered in his Diary
at this time. It reads:

“There seems by the late discoveries to be as great a Variety of Genera and Species
of Globes and Spheres in the Heavens as there are of animals and Vegetables upon Earth.—Clusters
of Worlds, Groups of Systems, and Clumps of combinations of Systems, as thick as of
Groves and forests of Trees and shrubbs here below.—Variegated too in Colour as much
as in magnitude, in decoration as much as in Use" (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 188).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0005-0029

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-05-29

28 [i.e. 29] Saturday.

Drank Tea at Mr. Putnams.—What is the proper Business of Mankind in this Life? We
come into the World naked and destitute of all the Conveniences and necessaries of
Life. And if we were not provided for, and nourished by our Parents or others should
inevitably perish as soon as born. We increase in strength of Body and mind by slow
and insensible Degrees. 1/3 of our Time is consumed in sleep, and 3/4 of the remainder,
is spent in procuring a mere animal sustenance. And if we live to the Age of three
score and Ten and then set down to make an estimate in our minds of the Happiness
we have enjoyed and the Misery we have suffered, We shall find I am apt to think,
that the overballance of Happiness is quite inconsiderable. We shall find that we
have been through the greatest Part of our Lives pursuing Shadows, and empty but glittering
Phantoms rather than substances. We shall find that we have applied our whole Vigour,
all our Faculties, in the Pursuit of Honour, or Wealth, or Learning or some other
such delusive Trifle, instead of the real and everlasting Excellences of Piety and
Virtue. Habits of Contemplating the Deity and his transcendent Excellences, and correspondent
Habits of complacency in and Dependence upon him, Habits of Reverence and Gratitude,
to God, and Habits of Love and Compassion to our fellow men and Habits of Temperance,
Recollection and self Government will afford us a real and substantial Pleasure. We
may then exult in a Conciousness of the Favour of God, and the Prospect of everlasting
Felicity.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0005-0030

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-05-30

29 [i.e. 30] Sunday.

Heard Mr. Maccarty. “You who are sinners, are in continual Danger of being swallowed
up quick and born away by the mighty Torrent of Gods wrath and Justice. It is now
as it were restrained and banked up by his Goodness. But he will by and by, unless
Repentance prevent, let it out in full Fury upon you.” This week I have wrote the
[8th?] Sermon of Bentleys Boilean Lectures. Read part of the 1st Volume of Voltairs Age
of Lewis 14th.1—I make poor Weeks Works.

1. Lengthy extracts from Voltaire’s Age of Louis XIV, first published in 1751, appear in JA’s commonplace book kept in Worcester (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 187).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0005-0031

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-05-31

30 [i.e. 31] Monday.

When we see or feel any Body, we discern nothing but Bulk and Extention. We can change
this Extention into a great Variety of Shapes and Figures, and by applying our senses
to it can get Ideas of those { 32 } different Figures, But can do nothing more than change the Figure. If we pulverize
Glass or Salt, the original constituent matter remains the same, only we have altered
the Contexture of its Parts. Large loads and heaps of matter as mountains and Rocks
lie obstinate, inactive and motionless, and eternally will remain so unless moved
by some Force extrinsick to themselves. Dissolve the Cohesion, and reduce these Mountains
to their primogeneal Atoms, these Atoms are as dull and senseless as they were when
combined into the Shape of a mountain. In short matter has no Consciousness of its
own Existence, has no power of its own, no active Power I mean, but is wholly passive.
Nor can Thought be ever produced by any modification of it. To say that God can superadd
to matter a Capacity of Thought is palpable nonsense and Contradiction. Such a Capacity
is inconsistent with the most essential Properties of matter.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0006-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-06-01

June 1756. 1 Tuesday.

Drank Tea at the Majors. The Reasoning of Mathematicians is founded on certain and
infallible Principles. Every Word they Use, conveys a determinate Idea, and by accurate
Definitions they excite the same Ideas in the mind of the Reader that were in the
mind of the Writer. When they have defined the Terms they intend to make use of, they
premise a few Axioms, or Self evident Principles, that every man must assent to as
soon as proposed. They then take for granted certain Postulates, that no one can deny
them, such as, that a right Line may be drawn from one given Point to another, and
from these plain simple Principles, they have raised most astonishing Speculations,
and proved the Extent of the human mind to be more spacious and capable than any other
Science.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0006-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-06-02

2 Wednesday.

Went to Spencer in the afternoon.—When we come into the World, our minds are destitute
of all Sorts of Ideas. Our senses inform us of various Qualities in the substances
around us. As we grow up our Acquaintance with Things enlarges and spreads. Colours
are painted in our minds through our Eyes. All the various Modulations of Sounds,
enter by our Ears. Fragrance and Fœtor, are perceived by the Smell, Extention and
Bulk by the Touch. These Ideas that enter simple and uncompounded thro our Senses
are called simple Ideas, because they are absolutely one and indivisible. Thus the
Whiteness of Snow can not be divided or seperated into 2 or more Whitenesses. The
same may { [facing 32] } { [facing 33] } { 33 } be said of all other Colours. It is indeed in our Power to mix and compound Colours
into new and more beautiful Appearances, than any that are to be found in Nature.
So We can combine various Sounds into one melodious Tune. In Short we can modify and
dispose the Simple Ideas of Sensation, into whatever shape we please. But these Ideas
can enter our minds no other Way but thro the senses. A man born blind will never
gain one Idea of Light or Colour. One born deaf will never get an Idea of sound.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0006-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-06-03

3 Thurdsday.

Heard Mr. Maccarty preach the Lecture, drank Tea with him, and spent the Evening at
the Majors.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0006-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-06-04

4 Friday.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0006-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-06-05

5 Saturday.

Dreamed away the afternoon.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0006-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-06-06

6 Sunday.

Heard Mr. Maccarty all Day. Drank Tea at home with Crawford. Spent the Evening at
home with Mr. Maccarty and Capt. Doolittle.1 A great deal of Thunder and Lightning.

1. Ephraim Doolittle, on whom JA has much more to say in his Autobiography.

14 Monday.

Drank Tea at Mr. Putnams. Spent the Evening at the Majors, with Esqrs. Chandler of
Woodstock and Brewer of Worcester.—He is not a wise man and is unfit to fill any important
Station in Society, that has left one Passion in his Soul unsubdued. The Love of Glory
will make a General sacrifice the Interest of his Nation, to his own Fame. Avarice
exposes some to Corruption and all to a Thousand meannesses and villanies destructive
to Society. Love has deposed lawful Kings, and aggrandiz’d unlawful, ill deserving
Courtiers. Envy is more Studious of eclipsing the Lustre of other men by indirect
Strategems, than of brightening its own Lustre by great and meritorious Actions. These
Passions should be bound fast and brought under the Yoke. Untamed they are lawless
Bulls, they roar and bluster, defy all Controul, and { 34 } some times murder their proper owner. But properly inured to Obedience, they take
their Places under the Yoke without Noise and labour vigorously in their masters Service.
From a sense of the Government of God, and a Regard to the Laws established by his
Providence, should all our Actions for ourselves or for other men, primarily originate.
And This master Passion in a good mans soul, like the larger Fishes of Prey will swallow
up and destroy all the rest.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0006-0009

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-06-15

15 Tuesday.

Consider, for one minute, the Changes produced in this Country, within the Space of
200 years. Then, the whole Continent was one continued dismall Wilderness, the haunt
of Wolves and Bears and more savage men. Now, the Forests are removed, the Land coverd
with fields of Corn, orchards bending with fruit, and the magnificent Habitations
of rational and civilized People. Then our Rivers flowed through gloomy deserts and
offensive Swamps. Now the same Rivers glide smoothly on through rich Countries fraught
with every delightful Object, and through Meadows painted with the most beautyful
scenery of Nature, and of Art. The narrow Hutts of the Indians have been removed and
in their room have arisen fair and lofty Edifices, large and well compacted Cities.

24 [–27] Thurdsday. Fryday. Saturday. Sunday.

1. Presumably the text of this entry pertains to the last day in the heading (Sunday,
27 June).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0006-0015

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-06-28

28 Monday.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-19

July. 1756. 19. Monday.

Sat out for Boston. Borrowed the Idea of a Patriot King of Ned. Quincy.1 Rode to Cambridge. Lodgd. Rode the next morning to Worcester.

1. Edmund Quincy (1733–1768), son of the first Josiah Quincy; Harvard 1752. Bolingbroke’s Idea of a Patriot King was first published in 1749.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-20

20 Tuesday.

Eliot and Trumble lodged here with me.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-21

21 Wednesday.

Kept School.—I am now entering on another Year,1 and I am resolved not to neglect my Time as I did last Year. I am resolved to rise
with the Sun and to study the Scriptures, on Thurdsday, Fryday, Saturday, and Sunday
mornings, and to study some Latin author the other 3 mornings. Noons and Nights I
intend to read English Authors. This is my fixt Determination, and I will set down
every neglect and every compliance with this Resolution. May I blush whenever I suffer
one hour to pass unimproved. I will rouse up my mind, and fix my Attention. I will
stand collected within my self and think upon what I read and what I see. I will strive
with all my soul to be something more than Persons who have had less Advantages than
myself.

1. Since his graduation from Harvard, or since his arrival in Worcester? It was not exactly
a year since either of these events; see note on entry of 14 Jan. 1756, above.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-22

22 Thurdsday.

Fast day. Rose not till 7 o clock. This is the usual Fate of my Resolutions! Wrote
the 3 first Chapters of St. James. Wrote in Bolinbroke pretty industriously. Spent
the Evening at Mr. Paines.—The Years of my Youth are marked by divine Providence with
various and with great Events. The last Year is rendered conspicuous in the memorials
of past Ages, by a Series of very remarkable Events, of various Kinds. The Year opened
with the Projection of 3 Expeditions, to prevent the further, and remove the present
Depredations, and Encroachments of our turbulent french Neighbours. I shall not minute
the graduall Steps, advanced by each Army, but only the Issue of each. Braddock the
Commander of the Forces, destind against Duquesne, and 6 or 700 of his men, were butchered
in a manner unexampled in History. All, routed and destroyed without doing the least
Injury that we know of, to the Enemy. Johnson, with his Army, was attacked by the
Baron { 36 } Dieskeau, but happily maintaind his Ground and routed the Enemy, taking Dieskeau prisoner.
Moncton and Winslow at Nova Scotia, gaind their Point, took the Fortresses and sent
of [off] the Inhabitants into these Provinces. Boskawen bravely defended our Coast with his
Fleet, and made great Havock among the french merchant Ships. All these Actions were
performed in a Time of Peace. Sed paulo majora canamus. God almighty has exerted the
Strength of his tremendous Arm and shook one of the finest, richest, and most populous
Cities in Europe, into Ruin and Desolation, by an Earthquake. The greatest Part of
Europe and the greatest Part of America, has been in violent Convulsions, and admonished
the Inhabitants of both, that neither Riches nor Honours, nor the solid Globe itself
is a proper Basis, on which to build our hopes of Security. The british Nation has
been making very expensive and very formidable Preparations, to Secure its Territories
against an Invasion by the French, and to humble the insolent Tempers, and aspiring
Prospects of that ambitious and faithless Nation. The gathering of the Clouds, seems
to forebode very tempestuous Weather, and none can tell but the Storm will break heavy
upon himself in particular. Is it not then the highest Frensy and Distraction to neglect
these Expostulations of Providence and continue a Rebellion against that Potentate
who alone has Wisdom enough to perceive and Power enough to procure for us the only
certain means of Happiness and goodness enough to prompt him to both.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-23

23 Friday.

Rose at 7. Wrote the 2 last Chapters of St. James. Spent the Evening at the Majors
and drank Tea at Putnams.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-24

24 Saturday.

Rose at 7. Wrote a little in Greek. Afternoon wrote Bolinbroke.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0007

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-25

25 Sunday.

Rose 1/2 after 6.—Good Sense, some say, is enough to regulate our Conduct, to dictate
Thoughts and Actions which are proper upon certain Occasions. This they say will soften
and refine the Motions of our Limbs into an easy and agreable Air altho the Dancing
Master never was applied to, and this will suggest good Answers, good Observations
and good Expressions to us better than refined Breeding. Good sense will make us remember
that others have as good a right to think for themselves and to speak their own Opinions
as I have, that { 37 } another mans making a silly Speech, does not warrant my ill nature and Pride in grasping
the Opportunity to ridicule him, and show my Witt. A puffy, vain, conceited Conversation,
never fails to bring a Man into Contempt, altho his natural Endowments be ever so
great, and his Application and Industry ever so intense. No Accomplishments, no Virtues
are a sufficient Attonement for Vanity, and a haughty overbearing Temper in Conversation.
And such is [the] Humour of the World the greater a mans Parts and the nobler his Virtues in other
Respects, the more Derision and Ridicule does this one Vice and Folly throw him into.
Good sense is generally attended with a very lively sense and delight in Applause.
The Love of Fame in such men is generally much stronger than in other People, and
this Passion it must be confessed is apt to betray men into impertinent Exertions
of their Talents, sometimes into censorious Remarks upon others, often into little
meannesses to sound the opinions of others and oftenest of all into a childish Affectation
of Wit and Gaiety. I must own my self to have been, to a very heinous Degree, guilty
in this Respect. When in Company with Persons much superior to my self in Years and
Place, I have talked to shew my Learning. I have been too bold with great men, which
Boldness will no doubt be called Self Conceit. I have made ill natured Remarks upon
the Intellectuals, manners, Practice &c. of other People. I have foolishly aimed at
Wit and Spirit, at making a shining Figure in gay Company, but instead of shining
briter I only clouded the few Rays that before rendered me visible. Such has been
my unhappy Fate.—I now resolve for the future, never to say an ill naturd Thing, concerning
Ministers or the ministerial Profession, never to say an envious Thing concerning
Governors, Judges, Ministers, Clerks, Sheriffs, Lawyers, or any other honorable or
Lucrative offices or officers, never to affect Wit upon laced Wastecoats or large
Estates or their Professors [Possessors?], never to shew my own Importance or Superiority, by remarking the Foibles, Vices,
or Inferiority of others. But I now resolve as far as lies in me, to take Notice chiefly
of the amiable Qualities of other People, to put the most favourable Construction
upon the Weaknesses, Bigotry, and Errors of others, &c. and to labour more for an
inoffensive and amiable than for a shining and invidious Character.—Heard Crawford
in the morning, and Harding in the afternoon.

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Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-26

26 Monday.

Rose at 7. Read carefully 30 lines in Virgil.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0009

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-27

27 Tuesday.

Rose at 7. Read carefully 30 lines, in Virgil. Wrote a little in Bolingbroke at noon
and a little at night. Spent the Evening at Mr. Putnams.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0010

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-28

28 Wednesday.

Read about 40 lines in Virgil, and wrote a little at noon. Nothing more.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0011

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-29

29 Thurdsday.

Rose half after 6. Read a little Greek.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0012

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-30

30 Fryday.

A very rainy Day. Dreamed away the Time.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0007-0013

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-07-31

31 Saturday.

A rainy forenoon. Dined at Mr. Paines. A fair after[noon]. The Nature and Essence of the material World is not less conceal’d from our knowledge
than the Nature and Essence of God. We see our selves surrounded on all sides with
a vast expanse of Heavens, and we feel our selves astonished at the Grandeur, the
blazing Pomp of those Starrs with which it is adorned. The Birds fly over our Heads
and our fellow animals Labour and sport around us, the Trees wave and murmur in the
Winds, the Clouds float and shine on high, the surging billows rise in the Sea, and
Ships break through the Tempest. Here rises a spacious City, and yonder is spread
out an extensive Plain. These Objects are so common and familiar, that we think our
selves fully Acquainted with them; but these are only Effects and Properties, the
substance from whence they flow is hid from us in impenetrable Obscurity.

God is said to be self existent, and that therefore he may have existed from Eternity,
and throughout Immensity. God exists by an absolute Necessity in his own Nature. That
is, it implies a Contradiction to suppose him not to exist. To ask what this Necessity
is, is as if you should ask what the Necessity of the Equality between twice 2 and
4, is. Twice 2 are necessarily in their own nature equal to 4, not only here but in
every Point of Space, not only now, but in every Point of Duration. In the same manner
God necessarily exists not only here but throughout unlimited Space, not only now
but throughout all Duration, past, and future.

We observe, in the animate and in the inanimate Creation, a surprizing Diversity,
and a surprizing Uniformity. Of inanimate Substances, there is a great variety, from
the Pebble in the Streets, quite up to the Vegetables in the Forrest. Of animals there
is no less a Variety of Species from the Animalculs that escape our naked sight, quite
through the intermediate Kinds up to Elephants, Horses, men. Yet notwithstanding this
Variety, there is, from the highest Species of animals upon this Globe which is generally
thought to be Man, a regular and uniform Subordination of one Tribe to another down
to the apparently insignificant animalcules in pepper Water, and the same Subordination
continues quite through the Vegetable Kingdom. And it is worth observing that each
Species regularly and uniformly preserve all their essential and peculiar properties,
without partaking of the peculiar Properties of others. We dont see Chickens hatched
with fins to swim, nor Fishes spawned with wings to fly. We dont see a Colt folded
[foaled] with Claws like a Bird, nor men with the Cloathing or Armour which his Reason renders
him capable of procuring for himself. Every Species has its distinguishing Properties,
and every Individual that is born has all those Properties without any of the distinguishing
Properties of another Species. What now can preserve this prodigious Variety of Species’s
and this inflexible Uniformity among the Individuals, but the continual and vigilant
Providence of God.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0008-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-08-01

August. 1756. 1 Sunday.

Heard Mr. Maccarty all Day. Spent the Evening at the Collonels.— The Event Shews that
my Resolutions are of a very thin and vapory Consistence. Almost a fortnight has passed
since I came to Worcester the last Time. Some part of the Time, I have spent as frugally
and industriously as I possibly could. But the greatest Part I have dreamed away as
Usual. I am now entering upon a new month, and a new Week, and I should think that
one month would carry me forward considerably, If I could keep up a continual Presence
of mind, and a close Application, at all proper Times. This I will Labour after.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0008-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-08-02

2 Monday.

Agreably to the Design laid last night, I arose this Morning before the sun. Dined
at Pains. Lodgd at Putnams.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0008-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-08-03

3 Tuesday.

Dind at the Colonels. Lodged at Put[nam’s].

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Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-08-04

4 Wednesday.

Breakfasted at Put[nam’]s.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0008-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-08-07

7 Saturday.

All this past Week my designs have been interrupted, by the Troubles and Confusion
of the House. I shall be able to resume the Thread of my Studies I hope now. Wrote
pretty industriously in Bolinbroke.— I have never looked attentively into my own Breast.
I have never considered, (as I ought) the surprizing Faculties and Opperations of
the Mind. Our minds are capable of receiving an infinite Variety of Ideas, from those
numerous material objects with which we are surrounded. And the vigourous Impressions
which we receive from these, our minds are capable of retaining, compounding and arranging
into all the Varieties of Picture and of Figure. Our minds are able to retain distinct
Comprehensions of an infinite multitude of Things without the least Labour or fatigue,
by curiously enquiring into the Scituation, Fruits, Produce, Manufactures, &c. of
our own, and by travailing into or reading about other Countries, we can gain distinct
Ideas of almost every Thing upon this Earth, at present, and by looking into Hystory
we can settle in our minds a clear and a comprehensive View of This Earth at its Creation,
of its various changes and Revolutions, of its various Catastrophes, of its progressive
Cultivation, sudden depopulation, and graduall repeopling, of the growth of several
Kingdoms and Empires, of their Wealth and Commerce, Warrs and Politicks, of the Characters
of their principal Leading Men, of their Grandeur and Power, of their Virtues and
Vices, and of their insensible Decays at first, and of their swift Destruction at
last. In fine we can attend the Earth from its Nativity thro all the various turns
of Fortune, through all its successive Changes, through all the events that happen
on its surface, and thro all the successive Generations of Mankind, to the final Conflagration
when the whole Earth with its Appendages shall be consumed and dissolved by the furious
Element of Fire. And after our minds are furnished with this ample Store of Ideas,
far from feeling burdened or overloaded, our thoughts are more free and active and
clear than before, and we are capable of diffusing our Acquaintance with things, much
further. We are not satiated with Knowledge, our Curiosity is only improved, and increased,
Our Thoughts rove beyond the visible diurnal sphere, they range thro the Heavens and
loose themselves amidst a Labyrinth of Worlds, and not contented with what is, they
run forward into futurity and search for new Employment { 41 } there. Here they can never stop. The wide, the boundless Prospect lies before them.
Here alone they find Objects adequate to their desires.

I know not by what Fatality it happens, but I seem to have a Necessity upon me of
trifling away my Time. Have not read 50 lines in Virgil this Week. Have wrote very
little.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0008-0006

Author: Adams, John

DateRange: 1756-08-12 - 1756-08-13

12 [–13] Thurdsday. Fryday.

I know not what became of these days.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0008-0007

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-08-14

14 Saturday.

I seem to have lost sight of the Object that I resolved to pursue. Dreams and slumbers,
sloth and negligence, will be the ruin of my schemes. However I seem to be awake now.
Why cant I keep awake? I have wrote Scripture pretty industriously this morning.—Why
am I so unreasonable, as to expect Happiness, and a solid undisturbed Contentment
amidst all the Disorders, and the continual Rotations of worldly Affairs? Stability
is no where to be found in that Part of the Universe that lies within our observation.
The natural and the moral World, are continually changing. The Planets, with all their
Appendages, strike out their amazing Circles round the Sun. Upon the Earth, one Day
is serene, and clear, no cloud intercepts the kind influence of the Sun, and all Nature
seems to flourish and look gay. But these delightfull scenes soon vanish, and are
succeeded by the gloom and Darkness of the Night. And before the morning Appears,
the Clouds gather, the Winds rise, Lightnings glare, and Thunders bellow through the
vast of Heaven. Man is sometimes flushed with Joy and transported with the full Fury
of sensual Pleasure, and the next Hour, lies groaning under the bitter Pangs of Disappointments
and adverse Fortune. Thus God has told us, by the general Constitution of the World,
by the Nature of all terrestrial Enjoyments, and by the Constitution of our own Bodies,
that This World was not designed for a lasting and a happy State, but rather for a
State of moral Discipline, that we might have a fair Opportunity and continual Excitements
to labour after a cheerful Resignation to all the Events of Providence, after Habits
of Virtue, Self Government, and Piety. And this Temper of mind is in our Power to
acquire, and this alone can secure us against all the Adversities of Fortune, against
all the Malice of men, against all the Opperations of Nature. A World in Flames, and
a whole System tumbling in Ruins to the Center, has nothing terrifying in it to a
man whose Security is builded on the adamantine Basis of good { 42 } Conscience and confirmed Piety. If I could but conform my Life and Conversation to
my Speculations, I should be happy.—Have I hardiness enough to contend with omnipotence?
Or have I cunning enough to elude infinite Wisdom, or Ingratitude enough to Spurn
at infinite Goodness? The Scituation that I am in, and the Advantages that I enjoy,
are thought to be the best for me by him who alone is a competent Judge of Fitness
and Propriety. Shall I then complain? Oh Madness, Pride, Impiety.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0008-0008

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-08-15

15 Sunday.

If one Man or Being, out of pure Generosity, and without any Expectation of Returns,
is about to confer any Favour or Emolument upon Another, he has a right and is at
Liberty to choose in what manner, and by what means, to confer it. He may convey the
Favour by his own Hand or by the Hand of his Servant, and the Obligation to Gratitude
is equally strong upon the benefited Being. The mode of bestowing does not diminish
the kindness, provided the Commodity or good is brought to us equally perfect and
without our Expence. But on the other Hand, If our Being is the original Cause of
Pain, Sorrow or Suffering to another, voluntarily and without provocation, it is injurious
to that other, whatever means he might employ and whatever Circumstances the Conveyance
of the Injury might be attended with. Thus we are equally obliged to the Supream Being
for the Information he has given us of our Duty, whether by the Constitution of our
Minds and Bodies or by a supernatural Revelation. For an instance of the latter let
us take original sin. Some say that Adams sin was enough to damn the whole human Race,
without any actual Crimes committed by any of them. Now this Guilt is brought upon
them not by their own rashness and Indiscretion, not by their own Wickedness and Vice,
but by the Supream Being. This Guilt brought upon us is a real Injury and Misfortune
because it renders us worse than not to be, and therefore making us guilty upon account
of Adams Delegation, or Representing all of us, is not in the least diminishing the
Injury and Injustice but only changing the mode of conveyance.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0008-0009

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-08-22

22 Sunday.

Yesterday I compleated a Contract with Mr. Putnam, to study Law under his Inspection
for two years.1 I ought to begin with a Resolution to oblige and please him and his Lady in a particular
Manner. I ought to endeavour to oblige and please every Body, but them in particular.
{ 43 } Necessity drove me to this Determination, but my Inclination I think was to preach.
However that would not do. But I set out with firm Resolutions I think never to commit
any meanness or injustice in the Practice of Law. The Study and Practice of Law, I
am sure does not dissolve the obligations of morality or of Religion. And altho the
Reason of my quitting Divinity was my Opinion concerning some disputed Points, I hope
I shall not give Reason of offence to any in that Profession by imprudent Warmth.

Heard Crawford upon the Love of God. The Obligation that is upon us to love God, he
says, arises from the Instances of his Love and Goodness to us. He has given us an
Existence and a Nature which renders us capable of enjoying Happiness and of suffering
Misery. He has given us several senses and has furnished the World around us with
a Variety of Objects proper to delight and entertain them. He has hung up in the Heavens
over our Heads, and has spread in the Fields of Nature around about us, those glorious
Shows and Appearances, by which our Eyes and our Imaginations are so extremely delighted.
We are pleased with the Beautyful Appearance of the Flower, we are agreably entertaind
with the Prospect of Forrests and Meadows, of verdant Field and mountains coverd with
Flocks, we are thrown into a kind of transport and amazement when we behold the amazing
concave of Heaven sprinkled and glittering with Starrs. He has also bestowed upon
the Vegetable Species a fragrance, that can almost as [agreeably?] entertain our sense of smell. He has so wonderfully constituted the Air that by giving
it a particular Kind of Vibration, it produces in us as intense sensation of Pleasure
as the organs of our Bodies can bear, in all the Varieties of Harmony and Concord.
But all the Provision[s] that he has [made?] for the Gratification of our senses, tho very engaging and unmerited Instances of
goodness, are much inferior to the Provision, the wonderful Provision that he has
made for the gratification of our nobler Powers of Intelligence and Reason. He has
given us Reason, to find out the Truth, and the real Design and true End of our Existence,
and has made all Endeavours to promote them agreable to our minds, and attended with
a conscious pleasure and Complacency. On the Contrary he has made a different Course
of Life, a Course of Impiety and Injustice, of Malevolence and Intemperance, appear
Shocking and deformed to our first Reflections. And since it was necessary to make
us liable to some Infirmities and Distempers of Body, he has plentifully stored the
Bowells and the surface of the Earth with Minerals and Vegetables that are proper
to defend us from some Deseases and to restore us to health from others. { 44 } Besides the Powers of our Reason and Invention have enabled us to devize Engines and
Instruments to take advantage of the Powers that we find in Nature to avert many Calamities
that would other wise befall us, and to procure many Enjoyments and Pleasures that
we could not other wise attain. He has connected the greatest Pleasure with the Discovery
of Truth and made it our Interest to pursue with Eagerness these intense Pleasures.
Have we not the greatest Reason then, yea is it not our indispensible Duty to return
our sincere Love and Gratitude to this greatest, kindest and most profuse Benefactor.
Would it not shew the deepest Baseness and most infamous Ingratitude to despize or
to disregard a Being to whose inexhausted Beneficence we are so deeply indebted.

1. The terms were that JA would continue to keep the Worcester school, the town paying Mrs. Putnam for his
board, and that JA would pay Putnam “an hundred dollars, when I should find it convenient” (JA, Autobiography).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0002-0008-0010

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1756-08-23

23 Monday.

Came to Mr. Putnams and began Law. And studied not very closely this Week.

I have read about 10 Pages in Justinian and Translated about 4 Pages into English.
This is the whole of my Days Work. I have smoaked, chatted, trifled, loitered away
this whole day almost. By much the greatest Part of this day has been spent, in unloading
a Cart, in cutting oven Wood, in making and recruiting my own fire, in eating nuts
and apples, in drinking Tea, cutting and smoaking Tobacco and in chatting with the
Doctor’s Wife5 at their House and at this.6 Chores, Chatt, Tobacco, Tea, Steal away Time. But I am resolved to translate Justinian
and his Commentators Notes by day light and read Gilberts Tenures by Night till I
am master of both, and I will meddle with no other Book in this Chamber on a Week
day. On a Sunday I will read the Inquiry into the Nature of the human Soul, and for
Amusement I will sometimes read Ovids Art of Love to Mrs. Savel.—This shall be my
Method.—I have read Gilberts 1st Section, of feuds, this evening but am not a Master
of it.

1. First entry in JA’s booklet “No. 2,” as numbered by CFA (our D/JA/2). Actually this is a collection of loose leaves, not a stitched gathering,
and many of the leaves are badly chipped and worn at the edges. Where illegible or
partly missing words or phrases can be reconstructed from the early transcripts prepared
for JQA and carefully corrected by CFA, the editors have not ordinarily used square brackets, reserving them for very doubtful
readings.

2. JA had recently finished his two-year period of legal studies under the “Inspection”
of James Putnam. He kept no diary during that period and wrote almost no letters that
have been preserved. A few incidents of his life in Worcester, 1756–1758, are recorded
in his Autobiography, q.v. On 19 July 1758 he had attended commencement in Cambridge
and argued, for his master of arts degree, the affirmative side of the quaestio, An Imperium civile, Hominibus prorsus necessarium, sit (Harvard Quaestiones, 1758, broadside).

3. This copy of Vinnius’ Justinian, which was probably of the edition published at Leyden,
1730, is no longer in the Harvard College Library.

4. Jeremiah (or Jeremy) Gridley (1702–1767), Harvard 1725, and Benjamin Prat (1711–1763), Harvard 1737 and later chief justice of New York Province, were at this time the two leading lawyers
of Boston.

6. This sentence, falling at the foot of one page of the MS and the top of the next, is partly worn away. The present text follows the early
transcript as corrected by CFA.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-06

Fryday. Oct. 6.

Rose about sun rise. Unpitched a Load of Hay. Translated 2 Leaves more of Justinian,
and in the afternoon walked to Deacon Webbs, then round by the Mill Pond home. Smoaked
a Pipe with Webb at the Drs. and am now about reading over again Gilberts section
of feudal Tenures.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-07

Saturday [7 October].

Read in Gilbert. Rode with Webb to Mr. Cranche’s. Dined and drank Tea with him, and
then home. Saturday night.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-08

Sunday [8 October].

Read a few Leaves in Baxters Enquiry into the Nature of the human Soul. He has explaind
with great Exactness, the Resistance, which Matter makes to any Change of its State
or Condition, whether of motion or of Rest. The Vis Inertiae, the positive Inactivity
of matter not barely its Inactivity, but its AntiActivity. For it not only is destitute
of a Power of changing its state from Rest to motion or from motion to Rest, but it
has the possitive Power, each single Particle has a Possitive Power of Resisting any
force that attempts to change its state. But a leaden Ball, held between my fingers,
as soon as I withdraw my fingers, will of itself for ought I see change its State
from rest to motion and fall suddenly to the floor. This Phenomenon is not Vis Inertiae,
’tis by no Reluctance or Aversion to motion that it moves, but it seems to be a Tendency
to motion, an Active Principle. If it is passive the Agent that presses it downwards
is invisible. But because matter in all the Experiments I have tried, resists a Change
from rest to motion upwards, will it follow, that all matter essentially resists a
Change from rest to motion, downwards. Is it a Posteriori from Experiments, that he
deduces this Proposition, that all matter essentially resists any Change of State,
or is it a Priori from some Property that is essentially included in our Idea of Matter
that he demonstratively [argues?] this Vis Inertiae. Is Inactivity, and AntiActivity, included in our Idea of Matter?
Are Activity, Perceptivity &c. Properties that we by only comparing Ideas can see
to be incompatible to any Properties of matter.

If nothing is Matter which has not this antiactive Principle, then human Minds are
not matter for they have no such Principle. We are { 47 } conscious, that we can begin and end motion of ourselves. If he argues a Posteriori
from Experiments, he can pretend only to Probability. For Unless he was certain that
he had made the Experiment and found the Property in every Particle of Matter that
ever was created, he could not be certain, that there was no Particle in the World,
without this Property, tho he had tried all but one and found that they had it. We
have tried but a few Parcells of Matter. The Utmost we can say is, that all we have
tried are inactive. But for Argument sake I will deny, that all the Parcels that we
have tried, have this Property. On the Contrary I will say that all have a motive
Power downwards. Powder has an Active Power springing every Way &c. Thus Experiment
is turned against the Doctrine. I cant yet see how he will prove all matter Anti inactive
a Priori from Properties of matter before known essential, with which he must shew
this to be necessarily connected.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-09

Monday Octr. 9.

Read in Gilberts Tenures. I must and will make that Book familiar to me.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-10

Tuesday [10 October].

Read in Gilbert. I read him slowly, but I gain Ideas and Knowledge as I go along,
which I dont always, when I read.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0007

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-11

Wednesday [11 October].

Rode to Boston. Conversed with Ned Quincy and Saml.,1 Peter Chardon &c. By the Way Peter Chardon is a promising Youth. He aspires, and
will reach to a considerable Height. He has a sense of the Dignity and Importance
of his Profession, that of the Law. He has a just Contempt of the idle, incurious,
Pleasure hunting young fellows of the Town, who pretend to study Law. He scorns the
Character, and he aims at a nobler. He talks of exulting in an unlimited field of
natural, civil and common Law, talks of nerving, sharpening the mind by the Study
of Law and Mathematicks, quotes Locks Conduct of the Understanding and transcribes
Points of Law into a Common-Place Book on Locks Modell.2 This fellows Thoughts are not employed on Songs and Girls, nor his Time, on flutes,
fiddles, Concerts and Card Tables. He will make something.3

2. A self-indexing commonplace book or collection of quotations arranged under topical
headings. Locke’s explanation of his plan is in a letter to M. Toignard (The Works of John Locke. { 48 } A New Edition, Corrected, London, 1823, 3:331–349). Among CFA’s papers is such a book, partly filled up by him, with a printed titlepage and the
imprint of Cummings and Hilliard, Boston, 1821 (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 312).

Fryday [13 October].

Read Gilbert. Went in the Evening to Coll. Quincys. Heard a Tryal before him, as a
Justice between Jos. Field and Luke Lambert.1 The Case was this. Lamberts Horse broke into Fields Inclosure, and lay there some
time, damage feasant. When Lambert found that his Horse was there he enters the Inclosure
and altho Feild called to him and forbid it, waved his Hat, and Screamed at the Horse,
and drove him away, with[out] tendering Feild his Damages. This was a Rescous of the Horse, out of Feilds Hands,
for altho Lambert had a Right to enter and take out his [Horse] tendering the Damages, yet, as [the] Words [of] the Law are “that whoever shall rescous any Creature out of the Hands of any Person
about to drive them to pound, whereby the Party injured shall be liable to lose his
Damages, and the Law be eluded, shall forfeit &c.,” and as Feild was actually about
to drive them to Pound, and Lambert offered him no Damages, this was compleatly a
Rescous. Feild, after the Rescous, went to Coll. Quincy, made Complaint against Lambert
and requested and obtained a Warrant. The Warrant was directed to the Constable, who
brought the Offender before the Justice, attended with the Complainant, and the Witnesses
ordered to be summoned. Quincy, for Defendant, took Exception on the Warrant, to the
Jurisdiction of the Justice, because the sum originally sued for, consisting of the
forfeiture of 40s. to the Poor, and the Parties Damages estimated at 9d. which was
40s. 9d., was a greater sum than the Justice can take Cognisance of, and because the
Words of this Act of the Province are, that this 40s. to the Poor, and these Damages
to the Party injured shall be recovered, by Action &c., in any of his Majesties Courts
of Record. Now as the Court of a single Justice is not one of his Majesties Courts
of record the forfeiture and Damages { 49 } prayed for in this Complaint, cannot be recovered in this Court. The Justice adjourned
his Court till 8 o’clock monday morning, in order to inform himself, 1st. Whether
the Court of a single Justice of the Peace was one of his Majesties Courts of Record?
2. Whether a single Justice can take Cognisance of any Matter, in which the sum originally
prosecuted for is more than 40s.? If upon Examination the Coll. shall find, that,
a single Justice has no Authority to hear and determine such a Rescous, at the Adjournment
the Proceedings will be quashed, and the Complainant must begin de Novo, but if he
finds, that a single Justice has Authority, to determine the matter, he will proceed
to Judgment.—The Questions that arise, in my mind, on this Case are these.

1. What is the true Idea, and Definition of a Court of Record? What Courts in England
and what in this Province are Courts of Record and what are not? Wood, Jacobs, &c.

2. Whether a Justice has Authority, by Warrant, to hear and determine of any offence
the Penalty of which, or the forfeiture to the K[ing], the Poor, the Informer &c. is more than 40s.?

[3.] Whether a Court is denominated a Court of Record from its keeping Records of its
Proceedings? Whether every Court is a Court of Record, whose President is a Judge
of Record? For it seems plain in Dalton that a Justice of the Peace is a Judge of
Record?

4. On supposition the Warrant should be quashed, who should pay the Cost of the original
Warrant, of the Defendants attendance, and of Witness[es’] Oaths and attendance? The Complainant, who was mistaken thro Ignorance in going to
the Justice for a Remedy, or the Justice who was mistaken, in the same manner, in
Acting upon the Complaint beyond his Authority?

5. What are the Steps of prosecuting by Information? Is not a motion made in Court,
that the Information may be amended or filed? Are Informations ever filed, but by
Attorney General? When the Penalty sued for by the Information is half to the King
or half to the Poor and the other half to the Informer, is the Defendant committed
till he discharges the Penalty? Or is an Execution ever issued?

[6.] Tis said Courts of Record alone have Power to impose a fine, or Imprison. Q[uery] which?

7. A Rescous is a Breach of Law and a Breach of the Peace, and Remedy for it may be
by Action of Trespass, which is always contra Pacem.

8. Are not Justices Warrants confined to criminal matters? May a Warrant be issued
for a Trespass Quare Clausum fregit?2 It may { 50 } for a Trespass of assault and Battery. Justices may punish by fine, Imprisonment,
Stripes &c.

The Coll. inquired, what Punishment he could inflict on a Constable for Disobedience
to his Warrant, for not making Return of his Doings? And he found a Case ruled in
K[ing]’s Bench that a Constable is a subordinate officer to a Justice of the Peace and is
indictable at common Law for neglect of Duty. The Malefeasance or Nonfeasance of officers
are Crimes and offences that may be inquired of, indicted or presented by the grand
Jury at Common Law.

Feild took Lamberts Horses Damage feasant in his Close once before and impounded them,
and gave him verbal Notice, that his Horses were in Pound, but neglected to give either
Lambert or the Pound keeper an account of the Damages the Horses had done him. Lambert
went to the Pound keeper and demanded his Horses, tendering the Poundkeepers fees,
and the Pound keeper delivered them up.

Now Q. Whether Feild is injoined by any Law of the Province, to get his Damages appraised
and to lodge an account of them with the Pound keeper?

2. Whether as he neglected this, the Pound keeper cant justify his resigning of them
to the owner?

3. If Feild had lodged an Estimation of his Damages with the Pound keeper, and the
Pound keeper had nevertheless resigned the Creatures up, without taking the Damages,
would not an Action lay against him as an Action lies against a Prison keeper for
a voluntary Escape? And Quere what Action would be proper. I want a form of an Action
of Escape, now.

4. It cant be called an indirect Way of delivering his Creatures out of Pound, to
pay or tender the Poundkeeper his fees and demand and receive his Cattle of him, when
he has unlocked and opened the Pound Gate and turned the Creatures out? So that it
will not admit a Quere whether Lambert is liable to an Action for receiving his Horses
of the Pound keeper. Tis plain I think he is not.

1. Field v. Lambert (or Lambard), in which JA served as counsel for the plaintiff, was evidently JA’s first case as a practicing lawyer. As later entries show, it caused him great concern
and vexation because his writ proved defective. The cause was heard by Justice Josiah
Quincy, whose son Samuel was the defendant’s counsel.

Monday [16 October].

Tuesday [17 October].

Read in Gilbert. Went to Monatiquot to see the Raising of the new Meeting House.1 No Observations worth noting.

I have not Spirits, and Presence of mind, to seek out scenes of Observation, and to
watch critically the Air, Countenances, Actions and Speeches of old men, and young
men, of old Women and young Girls, of Physicians and Priests, of old Maids and Batchelors.
I should chatter with a Girl, and watch her Behaviour, her answers to Questions, the
workings of Vanity and other Passions in her Breast. But objects before me dont suggest
proper Questions to ask, and proper Observations to make, so dull and confused at
present is my mind.—Betsy Niles affects to trip lightly across the floor, to act with
a Sprightly Air, and to be polite. But she is under Restraint, and awe, from her Unacquaintance
with Company. Saw Lawyer Thachers Father,2 at Mr. Niles’s. He said old Coll. Thatcher of Barnstable was an excellent man. “He
was a very holy man. I used to love to hear him pray. He was a Counsellor, and a Deacon.
I have heard him say, that of all his Titles, that of a Deacon, he tho’t the most
honourable.”3—Q[uery] is he a new Light? Old Age has commonly a sense of the Importance and Dignity of
Religion. I dare say, he is not well pleased with his son’s professing the Law. He
had rather have him a Deacon.

1. Monatiquot (variously spelled) was an ancient name frequently used by JA and others for the settlement on the Monatiquot River in present Braintree— at that
time the Middle Precinct of Braintree. The “new Meeting House” was that of the Second
Parish, to which Rev. Samuel Niles, Harvard 1699, had long ministered. See Pattee, Old Braintree and Quincy, p. 7, 56, 285–286; also map in CFA2, Three Episodes, vol. 2: following p. 578.

2. Oxenbridge Thacher the elder (1681–1772), Harvard 1698, father of the eminent Boston lawyer of the same name who will be frequently mentioned
in these pages.

3. Quotation marks supplied, here and above, around what is certainly a direct quotation
from old Mr. Thacher.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0012

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-18

Wednesday [18 October].

Went to Boston.

Bob Paine. I have ruined myself, by a too eager Pursuit of Wisdom. I have now neither Health
enough for an active Life, nor Knowledge enough for a sedentary one.

Quincy. We shall never make your great fellows.

Thus Paine and Quincy both are verging to Despair.

Paine. If I attempt a Composition, my Thoughts are slow and dull.

Paine is discouraged, and Quincy has not Courage enough to harbour a Thought of acquiring
a great Character. In short, none of them { 52 } have a foundation that will support them. P. Chardon seemed to me in the directest
Road to Superiority. Pains Face has lost its Bloom, and his Eye its Vivacity and fire.
His Eye is weak, his Countenance pale and his Attention unsteady. And what is worse,
he suffers this decline of Health to retard, almost to Stop his studies. And Q’s dastard
soul is afraid to aim at great Acquisition.

Paine (to me). You dont intend to be a Sage, I suppose.

Oh! P. has not Penetration to reach the Bottom of my mind. He dont know me. Next time
I will answer him, A Sage, no. Knowledge eno’ to keep out of fire and Water, is all
that I aim at.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0013

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-19

Thurdsday [19 October].

I borrowed yesterday of Quincy, the 1st Volume of Batista Angeloni’s Letters,1 and a general Treatise of naval Trade and Commerce as founded on the Laws and Statutes
of this Realm in which those (Laws and Statutes I suppose) relating to his Majesties
Customs, Merchants, Masters of Ships, Mariners, Letters of Marque, Privateers, Prizes,
Convoys, Cruizers &c. are particularly considered and treated with due Care under
all the necessary Heads from the earliest time down to the present, 2d Edition in
2. Volumes.2 Read Angeloni thro I believe, and studied, carefully, about a dozen Pages in mercantile
Law. Angelonis Letters are all of a Piece. He has an odd System of Faith, viz. that
Utility is Truth and therefore that Transubstantiation is true, and Auricular Confession
is true because they are useful, they promote the Happiness of mankind. Therefore
Rain is true because it is useful in promoting the Growth of Herbs, and fruits and
flowers, and consequently of Animals for mans Use. This is very different from Mathematical
Truth, and this Explanation of his meaning gives Room to suspect that he disbelieves
a Revelation, himself, tho he thinks it useful for the World to believe it.

He reasons, who can conceive that a Being of infinite Wisdom, Justice and Goodness,
would suffer the World to be governed 2000 [years] by a Religion that was false. But may not this Question be asked of the Mahometan,
the Chinese, in short of every Religion under the sun, and will not the Argument equally
prove them all to be true?

What Passion is most active and prevalent in Dr. Savel’s mind?3 The Desire of Money. He retails Sugar by the Pound, [ . . . ] by the bunch, Pins, Pen knifes, to save these Articles in his family, and neat4 a few Shillings Profit. He makes poor People who are in his Debt pay him in Labour.
He bargains with his Debtors in the 2 other Parishes { 53 } for Wood, which he sends to the Landing Place, and to Dr. Marshes. Thus by practice
of Physick, by trading and bargaining and scheming he picks up a Subsistance for his
family and gathers very gradually, Additions to his Stock. But this is low. The same
Application, and scheming in his Profession, would raise and spread him a Character,
procure him profitable Business and make his fortune. But by this contemptible Dissipation
of mind, among Pins, Needles, Tea, Snuff Boxes, Vendues, Loads of Wood, day labour
&c. he is negligent of the Theory of his Profession, and will live and die unknown.—These
driveling souls, oh! He aims not at fame, only at a Living and a fortune!

1. Letters on the English Nation, London, 1755, 2 vols., purporting to be “by Batista Angeloni, a Jesuit,” were actually the work of John
Shebbeare (see DNB), a British political writer whose identity JA had discovered by the time of his next reference to this book; see 19 March 1759, below. JA’s own copy of the Letters, now in the Boston Public Library, contains a few marginal notes in his hand and
some underscoring, though none in Letter IX, on religion, from which the paraphrase
below is largely derived.

2. The first volume of JA’s own copy of this edition survives, as does the first volume of his copy of the
first edition, London, 1740 (Catalogue of JA’s Library, p. 101).

3. The present paragraph is separated from the preceding ones by a line across the page
in the MS; it may therefore have been written on either 19 or 20 Oct.

Saturday [21 October].

Rose with the sun. Brot up the Horse and took a Ride over Penns Hill, as far as John
Haywards in a cold, keen, blustering N. Wester. Returned and breakfasted. I feel brac’d,
as if the cold clear Air had given a Spring to the System.—I am now sett down to the
Laws relating to naval Trade and Commerce. Let me inquire of the next Master of a
Ship that I see, what is a Bill of Lading, what the Pursers Book. What Invoices they
keep. What Account they keep of Goods received on Board, and of Goods delivered out,
at another Port, &c.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0015

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-22

[Sunday 22 October].

Conversed with Capt. Thatcher about commercial affairs.—When he receives a freight
of Goods on board his Vessell, he signs 3 Bills of Lading (a Bill of Lading, by the
Way, is a List of the several Articles, and the Receipt of them signed by the Master)
two of which the Merchant keeps, and the other he incloses in a Letter to his Correspondent
to whom he sends the Goods and sends it by the Vessell. When the Master arrives at
the Port he is destined to, he delivers the Letter, and then the Goods to his Employers
Correspondent, who upon Receipt indorses the Bill of Lading, and delivers it up to
the Master, and this { 54 } Bill thus endorsed, will [ . . . ] the other two in the Merchants Hands. The Receiver of Goods pays the freight.

Some Voyages, We have nothing to do, but receive Goods on board, keep them safely
on the Voyage and deliver them safely to the Merchant to whom they are directed. But
sometimes we make Trading Voyages. We carry a Cargo of Goods, to sell for money or
exchange for other Goods, in the most profitable manner we can. Here we keep a regular
Account, make the owners Debtors for Goods that we buy or receive, and give them Credit
for Goods that we deliver out.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0016

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-23

Monday [23 October].

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0017

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-24

Tuesday [24 October].

Rode to Boston. Arrived about 1/2 after 10. Went into the Court House, and sett down
by Mr. Paine att the Lawyers Table. I felt Shy, under Awe and concern, for Mr. Gridley,
Mr. Prat, Mr. Otis,1 Mr. Kent,2 and Mr. Thatcher were all present and looked sour. I had no Acquaintance with any
Body but Paine and Quincy and they took but little Notice. However I attended Court
Steadily all Day, and at night, went to Consort with Samll. Quincy and Dr. Gardiner.3 There I saw the most Spacious and elegant Room, the gayest Company of Gentlemen and
the finest Row of Ladies, that ever I saw. But the weather was so dull and I so disordered
that I could not make one half the observations that I wanted to make.

2. Benjamin Kent (1708–1788), Harvard 1727, another leading lawyer and later attorney general of the Province.

3. Silvester Gardiner (1707–1786), Boston physician and druggist; founder of Gardiner, Maine; one of JA’s early law clients.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0018

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-25

Wednesday [25 October].

Went in the morning to Mr. Gridleys, and asked the favour of his Advice what Steps
to take for an Introduction to the Practice of Law in this County.1 He answered “get sworn.”

Ego. But in order to that, sir, as I have no Patron, in this County.

G. I will recommend you to the Court. Mark the Day the Court adjourns to in order to
make up Judgments. Come to Town that Day, and in the mean Time I will speak to the
Bar for the Bar must be consulted, because the Court always inquires, if it be with
Consent of the Bar.

Then Mr. Gridley inquired what Method of Study I had pursued, { 55 } what Latin Books I read, what Greek, what French. What I had read upon Rhetorick.
Then he took his Common Place Book and gave me Ld. Hales Advice to a Student of the
Common Law, and when I had read that, he gave me Ld. C[hief] J[ustice] Reeves Advice [to] his Nephew, in the Study of the common Law. Then He gave me a Letter from Dr. Dickins,
Regius Professor of Law at the University of Cambridge, to him, pointing out a Method
of Studying the civil Law. Then he turned to a Letter He wrote himself to Judge Lightfoot,
Judge of the Admiralty in Rhode Island, directing to a Method of Studying the Admiralty
Law. Then Mr. Gridley run a Comparison between the Business and studies of a Lawyer
or Gentleman of the Bar, in England, and that of one here. A Lawyer in this Country
must study common Law and civil Law, and natural Law, and Admiralty Law, and must
do the duty of a Counsellor, a Lawyer, an Attorney, a sollicitor, and even of a scrivener,
so that the Difficulties of the Profession are much greater here than in England.

The Difficulties that attend the study may discourage some, but they never discouraged
me. [Here is conscious superiority.]2

I have a few Pieces of Advice to give you Mr. Adams. One is to pursue the Study of
the Law rather than the Gain of it. Pursue the Gain of it enough to keep out of the
Briars, but give your main Attention to the study of it.

The next is, not to marry early. For an early Marriage will obstruct your Improvement,
and in the next Place, twill involve you in Expence.

Another Thing is not to keep much Company. For the application of a Man who aims to
be a lawyer must be incessant. His Attention to his Books must be constant, which
is inconsistent with keeping much Company.

In the study of Law the common Law be sure deserves your first and last Attention,
and He has conquered all the Difficulties of this Law, who is Master of the Institutes.
You must conquer the Institutes. The Road of Science is much easier, now, than it
was when I sett out. I began with Co. Litt.3 and broke thro.

I asked his Advice about studying Greek. He answered it is a matter of meer Curiosity.—After
this long and familiar Conversation we went to Court. Attended all Day and in the
Evening I went to ask Mr. Thatchers Concurrence with the Bar. Drank Tea and spent
the whole Evening, upon original sin, Origin of Evil, the Plan of the Universe, and
at last, upon Law. He says He is sorry that he neglected to keep a common Place Book
when he began to study Law, and he is half a mind to begin now. Thatcher thinks, this
County is full.4

1. The account of this momentous interview in JA’s Autobiography differs so widely in details from this contemporary record of it
as to suggest that JA did not consult his Diary in composing the later account.

3. Coke upon Littleton, the famous Institutes of the Laws of England, London, 1628–1644, in four parts, which consisted of Sir Thomas Littleton’s treatise on tenures with
an elaborate commentary by Sir Edward Coke, long the standard authority on real property
in England and America.

Thurdsday [26 October].

Went in the morning to wait on Mr. Prat. He inquired if I had been sworn at Worcester?
No. Have you a Letter from Mr. Putnam to the Court? No. It would have been most proper
to have done one of them things first. When a young Gentleman goes from me into another
County, I always write in his favour to the Court in that County, or if you had been
sworn, there, you would have been intitled to be sworn here. But now, no Body in this
County knows any Thing about you. So no Body can say any Thing in your favour, but
by hearsay. I believe you have made a proper Proficiency in science, and that you
will do very well from what I have heard, but that is only hearsay. [How different
is this from Gridleys Treatment? Besides it is weak, for neither the Court nor the
Bar will question the Veracity of Mr. Gridly and Mr. Prat, so that the only Uncertainty
that can remain is whether Mr. Putnam was in Earnest, in the Account he gave of my
Morals and Studies to them Gentleman, which cannot be removed by a Line from him,
or by my being sworn at Worcester, or any other Way than by getting Mr. Putnam sworn.]1 After this, he asked me a few, short Questions about the Course of my studies which
I answered, and then came off as full of Wrath as [I] was full of Gratitude when I left Gridley the morning before. Prat is infinitely
harder of Access than Gridley. He is ill natured, and Gridley is good natured. —Attended
Court all Day, and at night waited on Otis at his office where I conversed with him
and he, with great Ease and familiarity, promised me to join the Bar in recommending
me to the Court. Mr. Gridley lent me Van Muydens Compendiosa Institutionum Justiniani
Tractatio in usum Collegiorum. Editio tertia prioribus Auctior et emendatior. Pax
Artium Altrix.2—After I have mastered this, I must read Hoppius’s Commentary on Justinian. The Design
of this Book is [to] explain the technical Terms of the civil Law, and to settle the Divisions and Distributions
of the civil Law. By the Way this is the first Thing a student ought to aim at, viz.
distinct Ideas under the terms and a clear apprehension of the Divisions and Distributions
of the science. This is one of the principal Excellences of Hawkins’s { 57 } Pleas of the Crown,3 and it is the very End of this Book of Van Muyden’s.

Let me remarke here one important neglect of the last Week. I omitted minuting the
Names of the Cases at Trial in my Ivory Book, and I omitted to keep Pen, Ink and Paper
at my Lodgings, in order to comitt to Writing, at Night, the Cases and Points of Law
that were argued and adjudged in the Day.

Let me remember to mark in my Memorandum Book, the Names of the Cases, and the Terms
and Points of Law that occur in each Case, to look these Terms and Points in the Books
at Otis’s, Prats or any other office, and to digest and write down the whole in the
Evening at my Lodgings. This will be reaping some real Advantage, by my Attendance
on the Courts, and, without this, the Observations that I may make will lie in total
Confusion in my mind.

2. JA later acquired this book (as he did others) from Gridley’s library, and it survives
among JA’s books in the Boston Public Library.

3. JA’s copy of William Hawkins, A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown, 4th edn., London, 1762, 2 vols. in 1, is in the Boston Public Library. It bears his autograph and that of
his son Charles.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0020

Author: Adams, John

DateRange: 1758-10-27 - 1758-10-30

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday [27–30 October].

All Spent in absolute Idleness, or what is worse, gallanting the Girls.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0001-0021

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-10-31

Tuesday [31 October].

Set down, and recollected my self, and read a little in Van Muyden, a little in naval
Trade and Commerce.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0002-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-11-01

Wednesday [1 November].

Read a little in Van Muyden, and a little in naval Trade and Commerce.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0002-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-11-02

Thurdsday [2 November].

Rode as far as Smelt Brook. Breakfasted, made my fire and am now set down to Van Muyden
in Earnest. His latin is easy, his definitions are pretty clear, and his Divisions
of the subject, are judicious.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0002-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-11-05

Sunday [5? November].

Drank Tea at Coll. Quincy’s. He read to me a Letter Coll. Gouch1 wrote him in answer to his Questions, whether a Justices Court was a Court of Record?
and then concluded, “So that Sammy was right, for he was all along of that Opinion.
I have forgot what your Opinion { 58 } was?” [This must be a Lye, or else Partiality and parental affection have blotted
out the Remembrance that I first started to his son Sam and him too, the Doubt whether
he had Jurisdiction as a Justice—and made him really imagine, what he wished had been
true viz. that Samll. had started it. If he did remember he knew it was insult to
me. But I bore it. Was forgetfulness, was Partiality, or was a cunning Design to try
if I was not vain of being the Starter of the Doubt, the true Cause of his saying,
He forgot what my Opinion was.]2

Sam has the utmost Reason to be grateful to Mr. Pratt. He will have an opportunity
100 times better than Mr. Prat had of rising into the Practice and Reputation of the
Law. I want to see and hear Sam at the Bar. I want to know how he will succeed. I
am concerned for him. The Govr.3 likes Sam much better than Ned. He has seen or heard some of Neds freaks. This is
a Partiality in favor of one Child and against another quite indecent in a father.
Tis great Weakness to expose himself so before Strangers.

Went to Town. Went to Mr. Gridleys office, but he had not returned to Town from Brookline.
Went again. Not returned. Attended Court till after 12 and began to grow uneasy expecting
that Quincy would be sworn and I have no Patron, when Mr. Gridly made his Appearance,
and on sight of me, whispered to Mr. Prat, Dana,2 Kent, Thatcher &c. about me. Mr. Prat said no Body knew me. Yes, says Gridley, I
have tried him, he is a very sensible Fellow.—At last He rose up and bowed to his
right Hand and said “Mr. Quincy,” when Quincy rose up, then bowed to me, “Mr. Adams,”
when I walked out. “May it please your Honours, I have 2 young Gentlemen Mr. Q. and
Mr. Adams to present for the Oath of an Attorney. Of Mr. Q. it is sufficient for me
to say he has lived 3 Years with Mr. Prat. Of Mr. Adams, as he is unknown to your
Honours, It is necessary to say that he has lived between 2 and 3 Years with Mr. Put[nam] of Worcester, has a good Character from him, and all others who know him, and that
he was with me the other day several Hours, and I take it he is qualified to study
the Law by his scholarship and that he has made a very considerable, a very great
Proficiency in the Principles of the Law, and therefore that the Clients Interest
may be safely intrusted in his Hands. I therefore recommend him with the Consent of
the Bar to your { 59 } Honors for the Oath.” Then Mr. Prat said 2 or 3 Words and the Clerk was ordered to
swear us. After the Oath Mr. Gridley took me by the Hand, wished me much Joy and recommended
me to the Bar. I shook Hands with the Bar, and received their Congratulations, and
invited them over to Stones to drink some Punch. Where the most of us resorted, and
had a very chearful [Chat?].

1. In his Autobiography JA twice says, in varying language, that his admission as attorney to the Suffolk bar
(which is to say his swearing-in before the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk
County) occurred on the last Friday (i.e. the 27th) of October 1758. Since the records
of the Suffolk Inferior Court for this period have been lost, the date cannot be finally
established, but there can be little doubt that the present Diary entry has been correctly
dated as 6 Nov. even though this date has had to be assigned, and, accordingly, that
the swearing-in occurred on that day. Note again how widely the account in the Autobiography
varies from that written at the time.

2. Richard Dana (1700–1772), Harvard 1718, often called “Father Dana” by JA to distinguish him from his son Francis, who also became a lawyer and, later, JA’s secretary in Europe, a diplomat, and a judge.

Bob Paine is conceited and pretends to more Knowledge and Genius than he has. I have
heard him say that he took more Pleasure in solving a Problem in Algebra than in a
frolick. He told me the other day, that he was as curious after a minute and particular
Knowledge of Mathematicks and Phylosophy, as I could be about the Laws of Antiquity.
By his Boldness in Company, he makes himself a great many Enemies. His Aim in Company
is to be admired, not to be beloved. He asked me what Duch Commentator I meant? I
said Vinnius.—Vinnius, says he, (with a flash of real Envy, but pretended Contempt,)
you cant understand one Page of Vinnius.—He must know that human Nature is disgusted
with such incomplaisant Behaviour. Besides he has no Right to say that I dont understand
every Word in Vinnius, or even in [ . . . ] for he knows nothing of me. For the future let me act the Part of a critical spy
upon him, not that of an open unsuspicious friend.—Last Superiour Court at Worcester
he dined in Company with Mr. Gridly, Mr. Trowbridge,2 and several others, at Mr. Putnams, and altho a modest attentive Behaviour would
have best become him in such a Company, yet he tried to ingross the whole Conversation
to himself. He did the same, in the Evening, when all the Judges of the Superiour
Court with Mr. Winthrop, Sewall, &c. were present, and he did the same last Thanksgiving
day, at Coll. Quincies, when Mr. Wibirt, Mr. Cranch &c. were present. This Impudence
may sett the Million a Gape at him but will make all Persons of Sense despize him,
or hate him. { 60 } That evening at Put[nam]s, he called me, a Numbskull and a Blunder Buss before all the Superiour Judges. I
was not present indeed, but such expressions were indecent and tended to give the
Judges a low Opinion of me, as if I was despized by my Acquaintance. He is an impudent,
ill-bred, conceited fellow. Yet he has Witt, sense, and Learning, and a great deal
of Humour, and has Virtue and Piety except his fretful, peevish, Childish Complaints
against the Disposition of Things. This Character is drawn with Resentment of his
ungenerous Treatment of me, and Allowances must therefore be made, but these are unexaggerated
facts.

Lambert setts up for a Witt and a Humourist. He is like a little nurley3 ill natured Horse that kicks at every Horse of his own size, but lears and shears
off from every one that is larger. I should mind what I say before him for he [is] always watching for wry Words to make into a droll story to laugh at. He laughs at
John Thayer, for saying, “Lambert, I am sorry [I] am your good Friend I am sorry. This will cost you between 2 and 3 hundred Pounds.”4 And it was a silly, [. . . impertinent?], ignorant Speech. He laughs at Field for being nettled at his laughter. Field complained
that he laughed at him. Lambert said, I will laugh when I please. If you carry me
to the Rat hole I will laugh all the Way, and after I get there.—Such fellows are
hated by all mankind, yet they rise and make a figure, and People dred them.

Altho men of bitter witt, are hated and feared, yet they are respected, by the World.

Quaere, was there ever a Witt, who had much Humanity and Compassion, much Tenderness
of Nature? Mr. Congreve was tender, extreamly tender of giving offence to any man.
Dr. Arbuthnot was a[s] great a Wit and Humourist, yet he was tender, and prudent. Mr. Cranch has Witt, and
is tender and [gentle?].5

The other Night I happened to be at the Drs., with Ben. Veasey. He began to prate
upon the Presumption of Philosophers in erecting Iron Rods to draw the Lightning from
the Clouds. His Brains were in a ferment with strong Liquor and he railed, and foamed
against those Points and the Presumption that erected them, in Language taken partly
from Scripture and partly from the drunken Disputes of Tavern Philosophy, in as wild
mad a manner as King Lear raves, against his Daughters Disobedience and Ingratitude,
and against the meaness of the Storm in joining with his Daughter against him in Shakespears
Lear. He talked of presuming upon God as Peter attempted to walk { 61 } upon the Water, attempting to controul the Artilry of Heaven, an Execution that Mortal
man cant Stay—the Elements of Heaven, fire, Heat, Rain, Wind, &c.

Let me search for the Clue, which Led great Shakespeare into the Labyrinth of mental
Nature! Let me examine how men think. Shakespeare had never seen in real Life Persons
under the Influence of all those Scenes of Pleasure and distress, which he has described
in his Works, but he imagined how a Person of such a Character would behave in such
Circumstances, by analogy from the Behaviour of others that were most like that Character
in nearly similar Circumstances, which he had seen.

1. If JA was correct in giving the day of the week as Tuesday, this entry should be dated
5 Dec.

2. Edmund Trowbridge (1709–1793), of Cambridge; Harvard 1728; attorney general and later a justice of the Superior Court. JA sometimes calls him Goffe, a name Trowbridge used in college and for a time thereafter
because his guardian was a great-uncle named Edmund Goffe.

4. The point of this anecdote is now lost, perhaps owing to JA’s punctuation, which stands here as in the MS except for moving back the closing quotation mark to this point from its original
position after the first use of the word “sorry” in the preceding sentence.

5. The following two paragraphs are separated from the present entry and from each other
by lines drawn across the page in the MS; they may have been written at any time between 5 and 18 Dec.

This Exclamation was very popular, for the Audience in general like the rest of the
Province, consider Thunder, and Lightning as well as Earthquakes, only as Judgments,
Punishments, Warnings &c. and have no Conception of any Uses they can serve in Nature.
I have heard some Persons of the highest Rank among us, say, that they really thought
the Erection of Iron Points, was an impious attempt to robb the almighty of his Thunder,
to wrest the Bolt of Vengeance out of his Hand. And others, that Thunder was designed,
as an Execution upon Criminals, that no Mortal can stay. That the attempt was foolish
as well as impious. And no Instances, even those of Steeples struck, where Iron Bars
have by Accident conveyed the Electricity as far as they reached without damage, which
one would think would force Conviction, have no weight at all.3

This Invention of Iron Points, to prevent the Danger of Thunder, { 62 } has met with all that opposition from the superstition, affectation of Piety, and
Jealousy of new Inventions, that Inoculation to prevent the Danger of the Small Pox,
and all other usefull Discoveries, have met with in all ages of the World.

I am not able to satisfy myself, whether the very general if not universal apprehension
that Thunder, Earthquakes, Pestilence, Famine &c. are designed merely as Punishments
of sins and Warnings to forsake, is natural to Mankind, or whether it was artfully
propagated, or whether it was derived from Revelation.

An Imagination that those Things are of no Use in Nature but to punish and alarm and
arouse sinners, could not be derived from real Revelation, because it is far from
being true, tho few Persons can be persuaded to think so.

1. The two following paragraphs were written, without indication of date, in JA’s copy of John Winthrop, A Lecture on Earthquakes; Read in the Chapel of Harvard-College in Cambridge, N.E. November
26th 1755, Boston, 1755, the first at p. 37 and the second on a blank final leaf. This copy is in the Boston
Public Library, and Mr. Zoltán Haraszti has published the marginalia, with a helpful
commentary, in “Young John Adams on Franklin’s Iron Points,” Isis, 41:11–14 (March 1950). See also entries of 18 Nov. 1755, above, and 12 March 1761, below.

2. This sentence is quoted in Winthrop’s text from Rev. Thomas Prince’s Earthquakes the Works of God, Boston, 1755, a sermon first published in 1727 and reissued with a new appendix after the earthquake
of 18 Nov. 1755. In the appendix Prince took a very dim view of the recent invention
by “the sagacious Mr. Franklin.” “The more Points of Iron are erected round the Earth to draw the Electrical Substance out of the Air; the more the Earth must needs be charged with it,” and consequently the more earthquakes. “In Boston are more erected than any where else in New England; and Boston seems to be more dreadfully shaken. Oh! there is no getting out of the mighty Hand
of God! If we think to avoid it in the Air, we cannot in the Earth: Yea it may grow more fatal.” To this Winthrop replied in an appendix of his own:
“I should think, though with the utmost deference to superior judgements, that the
pathetic exclamation, which comes next, might well enough have been spared. 'O! there
is no getting out of the mighty hand of GOD!’ For I cannot believe, that in the whole
town of Boston, where so many iron points are erected, there is so much as one person, who is so
weak, so ignorant, so foolish, or, to say all in one word, so atheistical, as ever
to have entertained a single thought, that it is possible, by the help of a few yards
of wire, to 'get out of the mighty hand of GOD.’” JA’s comments are attached to this paragraph of Winthrop’s.

Monday. December 18th. 1758

I this Evening delivered to Mr. Field, a Declaration in Trespass for a Rescue.1 I was obliged to finish it, without sufficient examination. If it should escape an
Abatement, it is quite indigested, and unclerk-like. I am ashamed of it, and concerned
for it. If my first Writt should be abated, if I should throw a large Bill of Costs
on my first Client, my { 63 } Character and Business will suffer greatly. It will be said, I dont understand my
Business. No one will trust his Interest in my hands. I never Saw a Writt, on that
Law of the Province. I was perplexed, and am very anxious about it. Now I feel the
Dissadvantages of Putnams Insociability, and neglect of me. Had he given me now and
then a few Hints concerning Practice, I should be able to judge better at this Hour
than I can now. I have Reason to complain of him. But, it is my Destiny to dig Treasures
with my own fingers. No Body will lend me or sell me a Pick axe. How this first Undertaking
will terminate, I know not. I hope the Dispute will be settled between them, or submitted,
and so my Writt never come to an Examination. But if it should I must take the Consequences.
I must assume a Resolution, to bear without freting.

Heard Parson Wibirt exert his Casuistry to J. Spear.2 Warned him against selling his [drowned?] Sheep for merchantable Mutton. It was not so nutritive nor palatable as Mutton butchered
and dressed, and therefore, was not worth the same Price, and it would be an Imposition
and a Cheat that his Conscience must disapprove to describe it and sell it as good
Mutton. He could not [sentence unfinished]

Wednesday [20 December].

I am this forenoon, resuming the Study of Van Muyden. I begin at the 99th Page.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0003-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-12-21

Thurdsday [21 December].

Yesterday and to day I have read loud, Tullius 4 Orations against Cataline. The Sweetness
and Grandeur of his sounds, and the Harmony of his Numbers give Pleasure enough to
reward the Reading if one understood none of his meaning. Besides I find it, a noble
Exercise. It exercises my Lungs, raises my Spirits, opens my Porr[s], quickens the Circulations, and so contributes much to Health.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0003-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-12-26

Tuesday, 26 of December.

Being the Evening after Christmas, the Dr. and I spent the Evening with Mr. Cleverly1 and Major Miller.2 Mr. Cleverly was chearful, alert, sociable and complaisant. So much good sense, and
knowledge, so { 64 } much good Humour and Contentment, and so much Poverty, are not to be found, in any
other House I believe in this Province. I am amazed that a man of his Inginuity, and
sprightliness, can be so shiftless. But what avails a noisy fame, a plentiful fortune,
and great figure and Consideration in the World? Neither Prat nor Gridley, Mayhew
nor Eliot, Stockbridge nor Hersey appear more easy and happy with all their wealth
and Reputation, than he with neither. Major Miller was sedate, but the Conversation
was not to his Taste. He began to tell what this and that fellow said, what Coll.
Oliver3 did at Dorchester and what he did at Deadham, but he said very little on the whole.
Both of them took unused freedoms with Coll. Quincy and his Brother.4 They are determined to esteem them both Knaves and fools.

4. Edmund Quincy (1703–1788), fourth of his name and brother of “Colonel” Josiah. His Boston mercantile firm having
gone into bankruptcy, Edmund was currently a farmer in Braintree, living in what is
now known as the “Dorothy Q.” house, still standing on Hancock Street in Quincy.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0003-0003-0007

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1758-12-29

Friday [29 December].

Let me see, if Bob P[aine] dont pick up this Story to laugh at. Lambert will laugh no doubt, and will tell the
story to every man he sees, and will squib me about it, whenever he sees me. He is
impudent and unfair enough, to turn this on every Occasion to my Disadvantage. Impudence,
Drollery, Villany, in Lambert, Indiscretion, Inconsideration, Irresolution, and ill
Luck in me, and Stinginess as well as ill Luck on the Side of Field, all unnite in
this Case to injure me.

Fields Wrath waxed hot this morning. When he found himself defeated a second time.1 He wished the affair in Hell, called Lambert a Devil and said, “That’s always the
Way in this Town, when any strange Devil comes into Town, he has all the Priviledges
of the Town.”

Let me Note the fatal Consequences of Precipitation. My first Determination, what
to do in this affair was right. I determined not to meddle. But By the cruel Reproaches
of my Mother, by the Importunity of Field, and by the fear of having it thought I
was incapable of drawing the Writt, I was seduced from that determination, and what
is the Consequence? The Writt is defective. It will be said, I undertook the Case
but was unable to manage it. This Nonsuit will be in the mouth of every Body. Lambert
will proclaim it.

Let me never undertake to draw a Writt, without sufficient Time to examine, and digest
in my mind all the Doubts, Queries, Objections that may arise.—But no Body will know
of any Abatement except this omission of the County.

An opinion will spread among the People, that I have not Cunning enough to cope with
Lambert. I should endeavour at my first setting out to possess the People with an
Opinion of my subtilty2 and Cunning. But this affair certainly looks like a strong Proof of the Contrary.

Saturday [30 December].

How a whole Family is put into a Broil sometimes by a Trifle.1 My P. and M.2 disagreed in Opinion about boarding Judah, that Difference occasioned passionate
Expressions, those Expressions made Dolly and Judah snivell, Peter3 observed and mentioned it, I faulted him for it, which made him mad and all was breaking
into a flame, when I quitted the Room, and took up Tully to compose myself. My P.
continued cool and pleasant a good while, but had his Temper roused at last, tho he
uttered not a rash Word, but resolutely asserted his Right to govern. My Mamma was
determined to know what my P. charged a Week for the Girls Board. P. said he had not
determined what to charge but would have her say what it was worth. She absolutely
refused to say. But “I will know if I live and breath. I can read yet. Why dont you
tell me, what you charge? You do it on purpose to teaze me. You are mighty arch this
morning. I wont have all the Towns Poor brought here, stark naked, for me to clothe
for nothing. I wont be a slave to other folks folk for nothing.”—And after the 2 Girls
cryed.—“I must not speak a Word [to]4 your Girls, Wenches, Drabbs. I’le kick both their fathers, presently. [You]5 want to put your Girls over me, to make me a slave to your Wenches.” Thus when the
Passions of Anger and Resentment are roused one Word will inflame them into Rage.

This was properly a conjugal Spat. A Spat between Husband and Wife. I might have made
more critical observations on the Course and Progress of human Passions if I had steadily
observed the faces, Eyes, Actions and Expressions of both Husband and Wife this morning.

M. seems to have no Scheme and Design in her Mind to persuade P. to resign his Trust
of Selectman. But when she feels the Trouble and Difficulties that attend it she fretts,
squibs, scolds, rages, raves. { 66 } None of her Speeches seem the Effect of any Design to get rid of the Trouble, but
only natural Expressions of the Pain and Uneasiness, which that Trouble occasions.
Cool Reasoning upon the Point with my Father, would soon bring her to his mind or
him to hers.

Let me from this remark distinctly the Different Effects of Reason and Rage. Reason,
Design, Scheme, governs pretty constantly in Put[nam]s House, but, Passion, Accident, Freak, Humour, govern in this House. Put knows what
he wants, and knows the Proper means to procure it, and how to employ them. He employs,
Reason, Ridicule, Contempt, to work upon his Wife.

Andrew Oliver is a very sagacious Trifler.7 He can decypher, with surprizing Penetration and Patience, any Thing wrote in signs,
whether English, Latin, or French. But to what Purpose? Tis like great skill and Dexterity
in Gaming, used only for Amuzement. With all his Expertness he never wins any Thing.
But this is his Way to fame. One man would be a famous Orator, another a famous Physician,
another a famous Phylosopher, or a 4th a famous Dancer, and he would be a famous Decypherer.
But I am quite content with the 24 Letters without inventing all the possible Marks
that might signify the same Things. Ned Q[uincy] is learning to be such another Nugator Sagax, an ar[t]ificial arrangement of Dots and Squares.

1. The whole of the entry recounting this domestic incident was omitted by CFA in editing JA’s Diary.

2. Papa and Mama, or Pater and Mater. Susanna (1709–1797), daughter of Peter and Ann (White) Boylston of Muddy River, or Brookline, married Deacon John Adams on 31 Oct. 1734; she married,
2d, John Hall, 3 Dec. 1766.

3. JA’s younger brother, Peter Boylston Adams (1738–1823); later a captain in the militia and holder of numerous local offices.

6. This and the following paragraph, each separated in the MS by lines across the page from what precedes, may have been written on either 30 or
31 Dec. 1758 or even in Jan. 1759 preceding the several undated entries that apparently
belong to that month.

Drank Tea at Coll. Quincies. Spent the Evening there, and the next morning. In the
afternoon, rode out to German Town.

H[annah] Q[uincy] or O.2 Suppose you was in your Study, engaged { 67 } in the Investigation of some Point of Law, or Philosophy, and your Wife should interrupt
you accidentally and break the Thread of your Thoughts, so that you never could recover
it?

Ego. No man, but a crooked Richard, would blame his Wife, for such an accidental Interruption.
And No Woman, but a Xantippe, would insist upon her Husbands Company, after he had
given her his Reasons for desiring to be alone.

O. Should you like to spend your Evenings, at Home in reading and conversing with your
Wife, rather than to spend them abroad in Taverns or with other Company?

Ego. Should prefer the Company of an agreable Wife, to any other Company for the most
Part, not always. I should not like to be imprisoned at home.

O. Suppose you had been abroad, and came home fatigued and perplexed, with Business,
or came out of your Study, wearied and perplexed with Study, and your Wife should
meet you with an unpleasant, or an inattentive face, how should you feel?

I would flee my Country, or she should.

O. How shall a Pair avoid falling into Passion or out of humour, upon some Occasions,
and treating each other unkindly.

Ego. By resolving against it. Forbid angry words &c.?3 Every Person knows that all are liable to mistakes, and Errors, and if the Husband
finds his Wife in one he should [ . . . ] reasonably4 and convince her of it, instead of being angry, and so on the Contrary. But if it
happens, that both get out of humour and an angry dispute ensues, yet both will be
sorry when their anger subsides, and mutually forgive and ask forgiveness, and love
each other the better for it, for the future.

O. thinks more than most of her Sex. She is always thinking or Reading. She sitts
and looks steadily, one way, very often, several minutes together in thought. E.5 looks pert, sprightly, gay, but thinks and reads much less than O.

[ . . . ]6 expos’d himself to Ridicule, by affectation, by Pretensions to Strength of mind and
Resolution, to depth and Penetration. Pretensions to Wisdom and Virtue, superiour
to all the World, will not be supported by Words only. If I tell a man I am wiser
and better than he or any other man, he will either despize, or hate, or pity me,
or perhaps all 3.—I have not conversed enough with the World, to behave rightly. I
talk to Paine about Greek, that makes him laugh. I talk to Sam Quincy about Resolution,
and being a great Man, and study and improving Time, which makes him laugh. I talk
to Ned, about the { 68 } Folly of affecting to be a Heretick, which makes him mad. I talk to Hannah and Easther
about the folly of Love, about despizing it, about being above it, pretend to be insensible
of tender Passions, which makes them laugh. I talk to Mr. Wibirt about the Decline
of Learning, tell him, I know no young fellow who promises to make a figure, cast
Sneers on Dr. Marsh for not knowing the Value of old Greek and Roman Authors, ask
“when will a Genius rise, that will shave his Beard, or let it grow rather and sink
himself in a Cell, in order to make a figure.” I talk to Parson Smith7 about despizing gay Dress, grand Buildings, great Estates, fame, &c. and being contented
with what will satisfy the real Wants of Nature.

All This is Affectation and Ostentation. ’Tis Affectation of Learning, and Virtue
and Wisdom, which I have not, and it is a weak fondness to shew all that I have, and
to be thot to have more than I have.

Besides this I have insensibly fallen into a Habit of affecting Wit and Humour, of
Shrugging my Shoulders, and moving [and] distorting the Muscles of my face. My Motions are stiff and uneasy, ungraceful, and
my attention is unsteady and irregular.

These are Reflections on myself that I make. They are faults, Defects, Fopperies and
follies, and Disadvantages. Can I mend these faults and supply these Defects?

O. makes Observations on Actions, Characters, Events, in Popes Homer, Milton, Popes
Poems, any Plays, Romances &c. that she reads and asks Questions about them in Company.
What do you think of Helen? What do you think of Hector &c. What Character do you
like best? Did you wish the Plot had not been discovered in Venice preserved?8 These are Questions that prove a thinking Mind. E. asks none such.

Thus in a Wild Campaign, a dissipating Party of Pleasure, observations and Improvement
may be made. Some Foppery, and folly and Vice, may be discerned in ones self, and
Motives, and Methods may be collected to subdue it. Some Virtue, or agreable Quality
may be observed in ones self and improved and cherished, or in another and transplanted
into ones self.

O. Tho O. knows and can practice the Art of pleasing, yet she fails, sometimes. She
lets us see a face of Ridicule, and Spying, sometimes, inadvertently, tho she looks
familiarly, and pleasantly for the most part. She is apparently frank, but really
reserved, seemingly pleased, and almost charmed, when she is really laughing with
Contempt. Her face and Hart have no Correspondence.

I am very thankful for these Checks. Good Treatment makes me think I am admired, beloved,
and [my] own Vanity will be indulged in me. So I dismiss my Gard and grow weak, silly, vain,
conceited, ostentatious. But a Check, a frown, a sneer, a Sarcasm rouses my Spirits,
makes me more careful and considerate. It may in short be made a Question, whether
good Treatment or bad is the best for me, i.e. wether Smiles, kind Words, respectful
Actions, dont betray me into Weaknesses and Littlenesses, that frowns, Satirical Speeches
and contemptuous Behaviour, make me avoid.

Mr. Wibirt has not an unsuspicious openness of face. You may see in his face, a silly
Pain when he hears the Girls, a whispering, and snickering.

Is Mrs. Palmer9 so infinitely sensible of such soft, tender scenes and actions, or, does she affect
to appear so? Or is it partly affected and partly real?

Popularity, next to Virtue and Wisdom, ought to be aimed at. For it is the Dictate
of Wisdom, and is necessary to the practice of Virtue in most.

Yesterday, went down to defend an Action for an old Horse vs. Samll. Spear. This was
undertaking the relief of distressed Poverty, the Defence of Innocence and Justice,
vs. Oppression, and Injustice. Capt. Thayer10 and Major Crosby too had told the Plaintiff that he could not maintain his Action,
and advised him to drop it or agree it. And Thayer spoke out, “I would have these
Parties agree.” I did not clearly understand the Case, had no Time to prepare to fix
in my mind beforehand the Steps that I should take. And Capt. Hollis, Major Miller,
and Captn. Thayer, were all 3 very active, and busy and interested themselves in the
suit. It was a scene of absolute Confusion. Major Crosby persuading an Agreement,
the Parties raging and scolding, I arguing and the 3 Voluntiers proposing each one
his Project. And all the Spectators smiling, whispering &c. My Attention was dissipated.
I committed oversights, omissions, inexpert Management. I should have adhered to the
Relation my Client gave me, and be• { 70 } lieved nothing that came from the other side, without Proof. I should have insisted
upon the Entry, and opposed any Motion for an Adjournment till next Week or Continuance
till next Hour, to send for Witnesses. For Madam Q. could not swear any Thing, that
can support this Action. Should have offered to admit all she could say. If I had
strictly pursued the story, that my Client told me, I should have demanded an Entry
of the Action, or else a Dismission of the Defendant with Costs. It was equally idle
and tame [lame?] to continue the Action, to send for a Witness, and to submit it to referees. For
the Witness if sent for could not support the Action, and to submit the original Debt
to Referees, was to submit nothing. For by the original Agreement, nothing was due.
Agreement was to take the Horse and keep him, and if he lived till April, to pay 2
dollars for him, but if he died before, to pay nothing. Now he actually died in February,
and therefore nothing by Contract was to be paid. The Keeping of so old an Horse was
more than the service he could do, was worth. The Hay he eat would have hired more
riding and drawing than that Horse did thro that Winter.

If Spear had applied to such as know, he would not have brot that Writ. But Deputy
Sheriffs, petit Justices, and pettifogging Meddlers, like Faxon, Niles, Hollis, attempt
to draw Writts, and draw them wrong oftener than they do right.

The Declaration was an Indeb[itatus] Ass[umpsit] with an Account annexed, for a Horse, sold and delivered. He could have proved, by
Spears Confession, that he had the Horse, but could not prove the Sale or Delivery
of the Horse, nor could he prove any Price agreed on by the Parties. Far from producing
Proof of any express Price agreed on by the Parties at the sale and Delivery, he cant
prove the Sale and delivery itself. Now to maintain an Action on an Indeb. Ass. the
Plaintiff must aver in his Declaration, and prove at the Trial, a certain, express
Price, agreed on by the Parties, or else a customary Price. Tis true there is this
Exception to the general Rule, that Merchants and Tradesmen, who keep running Accounts
open with their Customers, and deal out their Commodities and Manufactures in small
Parcells, shall be allowed to produce their Account Books in Evidence, and if they
will swear that they made the Entries of the several Articles att the times they were
delivered, and that they charged the Price for them, that was at that time customary,
they shall be allowed to recover. But is this Case like that. Will Mr. Spear swear
that he entered this Article at the time of the Sale and delivery, and will he swear
that he charged the customary Price? Pray what is the Customary Price of a { 71 } Horse. Are not some customar[il]y bot for £100 and some for less than £100.

I must study how to manage Eb. and Atherton Thayer and Hollis, and Eb. Miller and
Faxon. They are meddlers, hinters, and Projectors. I should have made a Motion to
the Justice, that either the Defendant or I might be consulted in the settlement of
this Affair, and that Miller, Hollis and Thayer who had no concern with it, might
not determine it, as they please.—I pray your Honour to silence the Clamour of those
who have no Concern with the Matter, that those who have may be heard.

Capt. Thayer pretends to great Knowledge in the Law. He could not bear to lose the
Honor of knowing and telling Mr. Spear, that an Indeb. Ass. could not lie, but that
Quant[um] Mer[uit] could [in] this Case. He was proud, bragged of it before all the Company, bragged, boast[ed], was ostentatious of his Knowledge in Law. So many hinting advice, making Proposals,
&c., make Confusion.

O. Pain aims at so many Things, but especially at getting Cash, that he will be distracted.
He pursues Cash with all his Hart and soul. He writes well and tells a very droll
story, but he is very peevish, fretful, odd tempered. He thinks himself in high favour
with the Ladies, but he little thinks how he is blasted sometimes.

1. This is one of only two entries in Jan. 1759 that bear even an indication of the day
of the week on which they were written, the next fully dated entry being that of 1
Feb. 1759. The January entries have therefore been placed in two groups but with intervals
of space between what may be entries written on different days. A word of caution:
since the pages of the MS are loose, it is not always possible to tell with certainty what the original order of the entries
was. Their order as printed by CFA is highly arbitrary.

2. In the MS the words “H.Q. or” have been crossed out but in so halfhearted a way that they provide
a key to the name of a girl who courted JA rather more energetically than he courted her. This was Hannah (1736–1826), daughter of Col. Josiah Quincy, who was in 1760 to marry Dr. Bela Lincoln. The initial “O.” stands for a fanciful
name that may have been Olinda or Orlinda (Salisbury, Family-Memorials, 1:359; JA to Richard Cranch [1759?], in Adams Papers).

3. In the MS this sentence is badly rubbed, and some words have been scored out; the present reading
is highly conjectural.

4. The illegible verb may be “use,” in which case JA meant to write “use reason,” as CFA rendered this passage.

5. Esther (1738–1810), daughter of Edmund Quincy and Hannah’s first cousin; she married JA’s friend Jonathan Sewall in 1764.

10. Capt. Ebenezer Thayer (1721–1794), son and father of other Ebenezer Thayers, was for many years a Braintree { 72 } selectman and representative to the General Court. JA disliked him on two counts: he kept a tavern in the Middle Precinct and dabbled in
legal practice.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0004-0001-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1759-01

Tuesday [January 1759].

Took a ride after Dinner to Gullivers Brook in Milton, returned home. Went over to
Deacon Belchers and drank Tea, and in the Evening walked home with O. Strolled by
the House down to Mr. Borlands, then back down the farm Lane as far as the Gate, then
back, up the Hill, and home.1 Met Mr. Wibirt at the Coll’s door, went with him to his Lodgings, slept with him
and spent all the next day with him, reading the Reflections on Courtship and Marriage,
and afternoon the 4 Satires of John Oldham on the Jesuits, and his Satyr on a Woman
who by breaking her Engagement had killed his friend, and his Bion, or Lamentation
on the Death of the Earl of Rochester, a Pastoral in Imitation of the Greek of Moschus,
a Piece as soft, and tender, as his Satyrs are nervous and malignant, or perhaps more
properly indignant.

The other night, the Choice of Hercules came into my mind, and left Impressions there
which I hope will never be effaced nor long unheeded. I thought of writing a Fable,
on the same Plan, but accommodated, by omitting some Circumstances and inserting others,
to my own Case.

Let Virtue address me—“Which, dear Youth, will you prefer? a Life of Effeminacy, Indolence
and obscurity, or a Life of Industry, Temperance, and Honour? Take my Advice, rise
and mount your Horse, by the Mornings dawn, and shake away amidst the great and beautiful
scenes of Nature, that appear at that Time of the day, all the Crudities that are
left in your stomach, and all the obstructions that are left in your Brains. Then
return to your Study, and bend your whole soul to the Institutes of the Law, and the
Reports of Cases, that have been adjudged by the Rules, in the Institutes. Let no
trifling Diversion or amuzement or Company decoy you from your Books, i.e. let no
Girl, no Gun, no Cards, no flutes, no Violins, no Dress, no Tobacco, no Laziness,
decoy you from your Books. (By the Way, Laziness, Languor, Inattention, are my Bane,
am too lazy to rise early and make a fire, and when my fire is made, at 10 o’clock
my Passion for knowledge, fame, fortune or any good, is too languid, to make me apply
with Spirit to my Books. And by Reason of my Inattention my mind is liable to be2 called off from Law, by a Girl, a Pipe, a Poem, a Love Letter, a Spectator, a Play,
&c.) But, keep your Law Book or some Point of Law in your mind at least 6 Hours in
a day. (I grow too minute and lengthy.) { 73 } Labour to get distinct Ideas of Law, Right, Wrong, Justice, Equity. Search for them
in your own mind, in Roman, grecian, french, English Treatises of natural, civil,
common, Statute Law. Aim at an exact Knowledge of the Nature, End, and Means of Government.
Compare the different forms of it with each other and each of them with their Effects
on public and private Happiness. Study Seneca, Cicero, and all other good moral Writers.
Study Montesque, Bolinbroke, [Vinnius?], &c. and all other good, civil Writers, &c.”

Prat. There is not a Page in Flavels Works without several sentences of Latin. Yet the
common People admire him. They admire his Latin as much as his English, and understand
it as well. [ . . . ]3 preached the best sermon that ever I heard. It was plain common sense. But other
sermons have no sense at all. They take the Parts of them out of their Concordances
and connect them together Hed and Tail.

How greatly elevated, above common People, and above Divines is this Lawyer. Is not
this Vanity, littleness of mind?

What am I doing? Shall I sleep away my whole 70 Years. No by every Thing I swear I
will renounce the Contemplative, and betake myself to an active roving Life by Sea
or Land, or else I will attempt some uncommon unexpected Enterprize in Law. Let me
lay the Plan and arouse Spirit enough to push boldly. I swear I will push myself into
Business. I will watch my Opportunity, to speak in Court, and will strike with surprize—surprize
Bench, Bar, Jury, Auditors and all. Activity, Boldness, Forwardness, will draw attention.
Ile not lean, with my Elbows on the Table, forever like Read, Swift, Fitch,4 Skinner, Story, &c. But I’le not forego the Pleasure of ranging the Woods, Climbing
Cliffs, walking in fields, Meadows, by Rivers, Lakes, &c., and confine my self to
a Chamber for nothing. Ile have some Boon, in Return, Exchange, fame, fortune, or
something.

Here are 2 nights, and one day and an half, spent in a softening, enervating, dissipating,
series of hustling, pratling, Poetry, Love, Courtship, Marriage. During all this Time,
I was seduced into the Course of unmanly Pleasures, that Vice describes to Hercules,
forgetful of the glorious Promises of Fame, Immortality, and a good Conscience, which
Virtue, makes to the same Hero, as Rewards of a hardy, toilsome, watchful Life, in
the service of Man kind. I could reflect with more satisfaction on an equal space
of Time spent in a painful Research of the Principles of Law, or a resolute attempt
of the Powers of Eloquence.

But where is my Attention? Is it fixed from sunrise to midnight, on grecian, roman,
gallic, british Law, History, Virtue, Eloquence? I dont see clearly The objects, that
I am after. They are often out of Sight. Moats, Attoms, feathers, are blown into my
Eyes, and blind me. Who can see distinctly the Course he is to take, and the objects
that he pursues, when in the midst of a whirl Wind of dust, straws, attoms and feathers.

Let me make this Remark. In P[arson] Wib[ird] s Company, Something is to be learned, of human Nature, human Life, Love, Court Ship,
Marriage. He has spent much of his Life, from his Youth, in Conversation with young
and old Persons of both sexes, maried and unmaried, and therefore has his Mind stuffed
with Remarks and stories of human Virtues, and Vices, Wisdom and folly, &c. But his
Opinion, out of Poetry, Love, Court ship, Mariage, Politicks, War, Beauty, Grace,
Decency &c. is not very valuable. His Soul is lost, in a dronish effeminacy. Ide rather
be lost in a Whirlwind of Activity, Study, Business, great and good Designs of promoting
the Honour, Grandeur, Wealth, Happiness of Mankind.

He says he has not Resolution enough to court a Woman. He wants to find one that will
charm, conquer him and rouse his spirit. He is like a Turkey, retiring to Roost. She
is difficult, looks a[t] several Places, to roost on, before she fixes on any, and when she has fixed on one
she stretches her Neck, squats, and changes her Posture several Times before she flies
up. This Simile is pretty and humorous enough. He is benevolent, sociable, friendly,
and has a pretty Imagination, Wit, some Humour but little grandeur, Strength, Penetration
of m[ind.] In short, he has an amiable and elegant, not a great mind. Paine has neither an amiable
nor a great Mind. There is too much Malignance, Envy, Conceit and ostentation, in
it, to be amiable, and too much Unsteadiness to be great.

Wib[ir]t exposes very freely to me his Disposition, the past and present state of his mind,
his susceptibility of Impressions from Beauty &c., his Being amourous, and inclined
to love, his Want of Resolution to Court, his Regard, fondness, for O.,5 his Intimacy and dalliance with her &c. He has if I mistake not a good many half
born Thoughts, of courting O.

1. On this sentimental stroll JA and Hannah Quincy walked past her father’s house (on the site of the old Adams Academy
building in present Quincy Square) and then down past the house and into the farm
that were later to become JA’s own homestead upon his return from Europe twenty-nine years later.

“Mr. Borland” was John Borland (1728–1775), who in 1750 had married { 75 } Anna, daughter of the late Leonard Vassall, a wealthy sugar-planter from the West
Indies. Vassall had settled in Boston and built, probably in 1731, a summer home in
the northern part of Braintree on the “old coast road” that ran from Boston to Plymouth.
His daughter inherited the property, but the Borlands lived here only occasionally,
their principal residence being in Cambridge. At the very beginning of the siege of
Boston John Borland died. “He lost his life by a fall in attempting to get upon the
top of his house [in Boston] to see an expedition to Hog Island” (Jonathan Sewall
to Thomas Robie, 7 June 1775, MHS, Procs., 2d ser., 10 [1895–1896]:412). This circumstance aided his widow, who in 1776 fled
with other loyalists to England, to recover her Braintree property at the close of
the Revolution; she promptly sold it to her son Leonard Vassall Borland; and in 1787,
while still in England, JA bought it through agents in Boston. Thereafter Adamses were to occupy it, expanding
the house and dependencies and improving the grounds in each generation, until 1927,
when BA, its last occupant, died. In 1946 the family, which had formed the Adams Memorial
Association to care for it, presented the homestead, long simply known as “the Old
House,” to the United States, and it is now the Adams National Historic Site, 135
Adams Street, Quincy.

On the Vassalls and Borlands see NEHGR, 17 (1863):56–61, 113–128; Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Boston, 1877, p. 493, 674–675; Jones, Loyalists of Mass., p. 41–42. A profusely illustrated historical and descriptive sketch of the Old House
was published by HA2, “The Adams Mansion,” Old-Time New England, 19:3–17 (July 1928); an enlarged reprint was issued by the Adams Memorial Association,
Quincy, 1935. Also available is an eight-page leaflet, Adams National Historic Site, issued by the National Park Service. There is no substitute, however, for a visit
to the homestead itself. No other house in America has been the home of so many successive
generations of political and intellectual leaders, and no restored structures and
sites can quite compare with originals that have been altered only by time and are
still furnished with the possessions of those who lived there.

Feb. 1.

I intend a Journey to Worcester to morrow. How many observations shall I make on the
People at West Town, and Worcester, and how many new Ideas, Hints, Rules of Law, and
Eloquence, shall I acquire before I return? Let my Journal answer this Question, after
my Return.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0004-0002-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1759-02-02

Feb. 2. 1759.

At Westtown, in Dr. Webbs Chamber at Hammonds. His landlady is an odd Woman. She seems
good Natured, and obliging to[o], but she has so many shruggs, grimaces, affectations of Witt, Cunning, and Humour,
as make her ridiculous. She is awkward, shamefaced, bashful, yet would fain seem sprightly,
witty, &c. She is a Squaddy,1 masculine, Creature, with a swarthy pale face, a great staring, rolling Eye, a rare
Collection of disagreable Qualities.

2. Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy ... at Paris, prototype of numerous “secret histories,” was first published in Paris, 1684, was
later greatly amplified, and became a popular work in both French and English. On
its multiple and probably international authorship see Joseph E. Tucker, “On the Authorship
of The Turkish Spy ...,” Bibliog. Soc. of Amer., Papers, 52 (1958):34–47, and references there.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0004-0002-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1759-02-11

Worcester Feb. 11. 1759.

I have been in this Town a Week this night. How much have I improved my Health by
Exercise, or my mind by Study or Conversation, in this Space? I have exercised little,
eat and drank and slept intemperately. Have inquired a little, of Mr. Putnam and of
Abel Willard, concerning some Points of Practice in Law. But dining once at Coll.
Chandlers, once at Mr. Pains, once at the Doctors, drinking Tea once at Mr. Paines,
once at the Drs. and spending one Evening at the Drs., one at Gardi[ner]s and several at Putnams in Company has wasted insensibly the greatest and best Part
of my time since I have been in Town. Oh how I have fulfilled the vain Boast I made
to Dr. Webb, of reading 12 Hours a day! What a fine scene of study is this office!
a fine Collection of Law, oratory, History, and Phylosophy. But I must not stay. I
must return to Braintree. I must attend a long Superiour Court at Boston. How shall
I pursue my Plan of Study?

Bo[b] Paine acted a scene that happened on the Com[mon] when the Troops were reviewed by the Governor.1 People crouded very near to the Troops, till a highland serjeant of a gigantic size,
and accoutred with a Variety of Instruments of Cruelty and Death, stalked out with
his vast Halbert to drive them back. He brandished his Halbert and smote it on the
Ground and cryed with a broad, Roaring Voice, Sta ban, i.e. Stand back. Sta ba. His
size, armour, Phyz and Voice, frighted People so that they presd backwards and almost
trampled on one another. But in the highest of his fury, he sprung onward, and shri[ek]ed out Sta, but then saw some Ladies before him, which softened him. At once, he drops
his Halbert, takes off his Bonnet, and makes a very complaisant Bow, pray Ladies,
please to stand a little back, you will see a great deal better.

Pain lifts up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven and cryes, of all Instruments of Defence,
good Heavens, give me Beauty. It could soften the ferocity of your highland serjeant.

Paine and Dr. Wendel took Katy Quincy and Polly Jackson, and led them into a retired
Room and there laughed, and screamed, and kissed and hussled. They came out glowing
like furnaces.

Mr. Marsh.2 Father Flynt has been very gay and sprightly, this sickness.3 Coll. Quincy was to see him, a fast day, and was or appeared to be, as he was about
taking leave of the old Gentleman, very much affected. The Tears flowed very fast.—I
hope Sir says he in [a] Voice of Grief, you will excuse my Passions.—Ay, prithy, says the old Man, I dont
care much for you, nor your Passions neither.

F. Morris said to him, “you are going Sir to Abrahams Bosom, but I dont know but I
shall reach there first.”—“Ay if you are a going there, I dont want to go.”

I spent one Evening this Week at Billy Belchers. I sat, book in Hand, on one side
of the fire, while Dr. Wendell, Billy Belcher and Stephen Cleverly and another young
Gentleman sat, in silence, round the Card Table, all the Evening. Two Evenings I spent
att Samll. Quincys, in the same manner, Dr. Gardiner, Henry Q., Ned Q., and S.Q. all
playing Cards the whole Evening. This is the wise and salutary amuzement, that young
Gentlemen take every Evening in this Town, playing Cards, drinking Punch and Wine,
Smoaking Tobacco, swearing &c. while 100 of the best Books lie on the shelves, Desks,
and Chairs, in the same room. This is not Misspence of Time. This is a wise, a profitable,
Improvement of Time. Cards, and Back Gammon, are fashionable Diversions. I'le be curst
if any young fellow can study, in this town. What Pleasure can a young Gentleman,
who is capable of thinking, take, in playing Cards? It gratifies none of the Senses,
nor Sight, Hearing, taste, smell, feeling. It can entertain the Mind only by hushing
its Clamours. Cards, Back Gammon are the great antidotes to Reflection, to thinking,
that cruel Tyrant within Us. What Learning, or Sense, are we to expect from young
Gentlemen, in whom a fondness for Cards, &c. outgrows and choaks the Desire of Knowledge?

1. This detached entry and the following ones, all recording incidents at Braintree,
must have been written at least several days after the preceding entry dated at Worcester,
11 February. The leaves of the MS being loose at this point, one cannot be sure of the original order of entries, but
very likely these revealing fragments belong to late February or early March.

3. Henry Flynt (1675–1760), Harvard 1693, usually known as “Tutor” Flynt from his long service as a Harvard tutor. His sister
Dorothy married Judge Edmund Quincy (1681–1738), and he was thus an uncle of Col.
Josiah Quincy and of Edmund Quincy (1703–1788), in whose house he frequently stayed.
(Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates, { 78 } 4:162–167.) In the Adams Papers there is a paper endorsed “Of Father Flynt’s Journey
to Portsmouth and back to Cambridge AE. 80,” i.e. in 1754, written by David Sewall and probably sent by Sewall to his Harvard
classmate JA in 1821. This entertaining account of a famous Harvard character was communicated
by CFA to the Massachusetts Historical Society and was printed in its Proceedings , 1st ser., 16 (1878):5–11.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0004-0003-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1759-03-14

March 14. 1759.

Reputation ought to be the perpetual subject of my Thoughts, and Aim of my Behaviour.
How shall I gain a Reputation! How shall I Spread an Opinion of myself as a Lawyer
of distinguished Genius, Learning, and Virtue. Shall I make frequent Visits in the
Neighbourhood and converse familiarly with Men, Women and Children in their own Style,
on the common Tittletattle of the Town, and the ordinary Concerns of a family, and
so take every fair opportunity of shewing my Knowledge in the Law? But this will require
much Thought, and Time, and a very particular Knowledge of the Province Law, and common
Matters, of which I know much less than I do of the Roman Law. This would take up
too much Thought and Time and Province Law.

Shall I endeavour to renew my Acquaintance with those young Gentlemen in Boston who
were at Colledge with me and to extend my Acquaintance among Merchants, Shop keepers,
Tradesmen, &c. and mingle with the Crowd upon Change, and trapes the Town house floor,
with one and another, in order to get a Character in Town. But this too will be a
lingering method and will require more Art and Address, and Patience too than I am
Master of.

Shall I, by making Remarks, and proposing Questions [to] the Lawyers att the Bar, endeavour to get a great Character for Understanding and
Learning with them. But this is slow and tedious, and will be ineffectual, for Envy,
Jealousy, and self Intrest, will not suffer them to give a young fellow a free generous
Character, especially me. Neither of these Projects will bear Examination, will avail.

Shall I look out for a Cause to Speak to, and exert all the Soul and all the Body
I own, to cut a flash, strike amazement, to catch the Vulgar? In short shall I walk
a lingering, heavy Pace or shall I take one bold determined Leap into the Midst of
some Cash and Business? That is the Question. A bold Push, a resolute attempt, a determined
Enterprize, or a slow, silent, imperceptible creeping. Shall I creep or fly.

Walked, this afternoon, along the side of the [Bushy?] Pond.1 The Blackbirds were perched on the Trees round the Borders of the Pond, { 79 } and singing. I saw a large flock of Crow Blackbirds alight on the Ground, in search
of Grain or Worms, I suppose. The Birds that were behind were perpetually flying over
the Heads of all the rest, and alighting in the front of the flock, so that each Bird
was in the front and Rear by turns, and all were chattering. It looked like a hovering,
half walking, half flying flock of Blackbirds. Soon after, they rose, and alighted
on the neighbouring Apple Trees, chattering, and singing all the Time. At the same
time, a Number of Crows were croaking, at a little distance on one side, and a wood
Pecker and a blue bird were whistling, and cackling, at a little Distance on the other.—This
is the first vernal scene I have observed this season. So many Birds of several different
species, all singing, chattering, whistling, fluttering, flying, hopping, leaping,
on the ground, in the Air, and on the Trees, was a very pleasant Amuzement to me.
It is very pleasant to see and hear the flocks of Birds, at their first Appearance
in the Spring. The Ground looks naked, and lifeless yet. The Colour of the Ground,
before the green [rises?] upp, is pale, lifeless, dead. There is very little beauty [in] the face of the Earth now, but the Vegetables will soon spring fresh and green, and
young and sprightly Grass, and flowers, and Roses, will appear on the Ground, buds,
blossoms, leaves on the Trees, and 100 species of Birds, flying in Air, alighting
on the Ground and on Trees, herds of Cattle, Sheep, horses, grazing and lowing in
the Pastures. Oh Nature! how [bright?] and beautiful thou art.

M.3 has a very confused, blundering Way of asking Questions. She never knows distinctly
what she is [after?], but asks at Random, any Thing, and has a difficulty in recollecting the Names of
Things. The Names of Things dont flow naturally into My Mind, when I have occasion
to use them. I had the Idea of the General Court in my Mind when I said to Otis, the
Judges had [some?] important Business to do in &c., but the Words General Court did not arise with the
Idea and therefore Otis thought I made [a] silly Speech. My Aunt Cunningham4 has the same difficulty, recollecting Words and Ideas too, especially, of Things
that are sometime past. A slothful Memory, a slow, heavy Memory, in oposition to a
quick prompt Memory.

[I?] read a letter from one in St.K. to one in P. concerning M. Chateleu going to this
Coast.5 M. asks what is that. How confused is this Question? It wants much explanation and
restriction, before an Answer can be given, for [ . . . ] she ask,6 who is that letter from or who to, or what Place from or to, or what about, and what
Place was { 80 } Chateleu going to. She knows not what she asks. Tis [owing?] to the Hurry and Impatience of Thought—which is the fault of us all.

Common People are not incapable of discerning the Motives and Springs of Words and
Actions.

1. This and the following detached entry may have been written any day between 14 and
17 or 18 March.

5. An extract of the letter in question, dated 9 Jan., was printed in the Boston Post Boy, 12 March 1759. It was from Jamaica, not St. K[itts], was addressed to a gentleman in Philadelphia, and reported the arrival in the West
Indies of the French naval commander Chateleau and his intention to raid Delaware
Bay.

6. This passage is obscure. Perhaps JA meant to write: “for should she not ask ...?”

This whole Day is dedicated to walking, riding, talk, &c. No Reading to day.

Twas Avarice, not Compassion that induced [ . . . ]2 to pass the last Court. He was afraid that Pen3 would be provoked to appeal both to the Superior Court if he put both in suit, and
so keep him out of his Money for 6 or 8 months. 6 months without Interest. Tis fear
of loosing the Interest upon Interest that induces him to pass this Court.—Oh Love
of Money!—oh, Avarice, disguised under the shew of Compassion!

I feel vexed, fretted, chafed, the Thought of no Business mortifies, stings me. I
feel angry, vexed with my Uncle Field,4 &c. But Let me banish these Fears. Let me assume a Fortitude, a Greatness of Mind.

In such a gradual ascent to fame and fortune, and Business, the Pleasure that they
give will be imperceptible, but by a bold, sudden rise, I shall feel all the Joys
of each at once. Have I Genius and Resolution and Health enough for such an attchievement?

Oh but a Wit can study in the Streets

and raise his mind above the Mob he meets.

Who can study in Boston Streets. I am unable to observe the various Objects, that
I meet, with sufficient Precision. My Eyes are so diverted with Chimney Sweeps, Carriers
of Wood, Merchants, Ladies, Priests, Carts, Horses, Oxen, Coaches, Market men and
Women, Soldiers, Sailors, and my Ears with the Rattle Gabble of them all that I cant
{ 81 } think long enough in the Street upon any one Thing to start and pursue a Thought.
I cant raise my mind above this mob Croud5 of Men, Women, Beasts and Carriages, to think steadily. My Attention is sollicited
every moment by some new object of sight, or some new sound. A Coach, Cart, a Lady
or a Priest, may at any Time, by breaking a Couplet, disconcert a whole Page of excellent
Thoughts.

What is meant by a nodding Beam, and pig of Lead.6 He means that his Attention is necessary to preserve his Life and Limbs, as he walks
the streets, for Sheets of Lead may fall from the Roofs of Houses. I know of no nodding
Beam, except at the Hay Market.

Shybeares Dedication is in a strain of ironical, Humorous Satyr.7 He reasons as warmly and positively as if in earnest in his favour, but his Reasoning
is so manifestly weak and in some places ambiguous that every Reader knows his true
Intention. This System of Religion is indeed new. Religious Institutions are mere
means of increasing and preserving Piety and Virtue in the World, and any Thing, that
will produce public and private advantages on the Happiness and Morals of a Nation,
however repugnant to common sense, as Transubstantiation e.g. is true.

1. Monday fell on 19, not 18, March 1759. Some of the detached entries that follow may
extend into April, since the next entry dated by JA is that of 8 April.

2. Name (probably an initial) either omitted by JA or lost in the frayed margin.

4. The Fields were neighbors but not close relatives of the Adamses, and JA evidently uses the term “Uncle” in a loose sense.

5. This word, written between the lines, was probably intended to replace the preceding
word, not crossed out.

6. From Pope, The Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, from which the couplet at the head of this paragraph is also taken: “And then a
nodding beam, or pig of lead, / God knows, may hurt the very ablest head.”

7. The reference is to John Shebbeare’s Letters on the English Nation, which satirizes the first Duke of Newcastle; see 19 Oct. 1758, above.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0004-0004-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1759-04-08

Sunday. April 8th. 1759.

Spent the Evening at Captain Bracketts. A Case was proposed and my Opinion asked,
which gave me Opportunity to display some Knowledge of Law but betrayed me into mistaken
Dogmatism. I frequently expose my Ignorance of the Province Law, but [things?] are started that put me upon Exn. [Examination?].

Coll. Q.1 I value not the Governor’s favours, more than this Pinch of Snuff, in Comparison
of my Honour and my Duty to my Town.

B. Fessenden: The Coll. said to Field, when he was building his { 82 } pen, “I had rather have it said on my Tomb Stone, here lies the good Mr. Quincy, than
here lies the rich Mr. Apthorp.”2 He told me that People were angry with him, because he was so fond of Honesty.

These reiterated Protestations in favour of Honesty, Goodness, Patriotism, or rather
these verbal Pretensions to these Qualities raise Suspicions and Jealousies. Too much
talk, Prate. Praise him self. He praises himself as much as other People censure him.
Populus me sibilat sed plaudo meipsum. The People hiss him, and curse him, and reproach
him, but he applauds, praises, admires himself. Does he believe what he says?

Tis in vain to expect felicity, without an habitual Contempt of Fortune, Fame, Beauty,
Praise, and all such Things. Unaffected Benevolence to Men and conscious Integrity
are sufficient supports. I have no Money. But I have an easy Heart, a quiet Mind.
G[od] made us to be happy. I distress my self. This Animi Magnitudo and Rerum humanarum
Contemptio, are alone secure of Happiness.

What Passions or affections in human Nature are affected by Satyr, by Humour, and
Drollery?

There is some Affection in human Nature that is delighted with Humour and Satyr, for
a good deal of it is to be seen and heard in all Nations, and among all Ranks of People.
It prevails in every Country Parish, may be found in every Tavern, at every Town meeting
thro the Province.

This was spoke in Person of one of the new Select Men, as Bracket, Thayer &c. and
upon this secret Principle, that an Advantage had been meanly taken of the thinness
of the Meeting to get a Change of Town officers. So that it hinted at the meanness,
and want of Influence in Town. Their Influence was not sufficient, to have carried
a Vote, had the Town been together. But they were mean enough to seize that Opportunity
when 3/4 of the Town were detained at Home by the storm, to assemble their Crew of
Debtors and Labourers, and accomplish their Projects as they pleased. Thus, the Wit
of this lay in hinting at their Meanness of Soul, and Insignificancy in the Town.
It hinted that the Point was carried, not by Merit, nor by real Popularity, but by
mean and clandestine Artifice, and Plotting.

How great is the Dread of Satyr and Ridicule in human Nature. Mrs. S. is afraid C[olonel] Q. and his [ . . . ] H.5 will laugh at her shape, dress, Behavior. Afraid of Laughter. I used to dread J[ames] O[tis] and B[enjamin] K[ent] because I suspected they laughed at me. I used to dread Put[nam], because of his satirical and contemptuous smiles.

Another reason. We were pleased to see the old Gent diverting himself and laughing
at the success of their Artifices to depose him, instead of being angry and scolding.

What Passions are pleased in the Reader or Hear[er], and what are vexed in the Person ridiculed.

Dr.6 S. after L.R. had turned him off, went into Church one day, and into the same Pew
where L. was. She smiled, and almost giggled at him. That stung him. He cryed a nasty,
stinking Jade, he did not think she was such a nasty yellow Jade, before. Thus the
Dr. diverted him self with her Colour. He laughed at her yellow Colour, in Revenge
of her Ridicule on him.

Thus human Nature, when despized and laughed at, is vexed, naturally vexed, and looks
about for some Imperfection, Deformity, folly or Vice to laugh at in turn. And when
a Man is deposed in T[own] meeting, he naturally imputes it to some mean Contrivance &c.

Ruggles’s Grandeur consists in the quickness of his apprehension, Steadiness of his
attention, the boldness and Strength of his Thoughts and Expressions, his strict Honour,
conscious Superiority, Contempt of Meanness &c. People approach him with Dread and
Terror.7

Gridleys Grandeur consists in his great Learning, his great Parts and his majestic
Manner. But is diminished by stiffness and affectation.

Ruggles is as proud, as lordly as Gridley. But he is more popular. He conceals it
more. He times it better. And it is easy and natural in him, but is stiff and affected
in Gridley.

Tis an Advantage to Ruggles’s Character, but a Disadvantage to Gridley’s.

Gridley has a bold, spirited Manner of Speaking, but is too stiff, has too little
Command of the Muscles of his face. His Words seem to pierce and search, have something
quick and animating. He is a great Reasoner, and has a very vivid Imagination.

Prat has a strong, elastic Spring, or what we call Smartness, and Strength in his
Mind. His Ideas seem to lie deep and to be brot up with a strong Effort of the Mind.
His Ideas are vivid, and he sees their { 84 } Differences. Otis is extreamly quick and elastic. His Apprehension is as quick as
his Temper. He springs, and twitches his Muscles about in thinking.

Thatcher has not this same Strength and Elasticity. He is sensible, but slow of Conception
and Communication. He is queer, and affected. He is not easy.

Coll. Q. I learn’d to write Letters of Pope and Swift &c. I should not have wrote a Letter
with so much Correctness as I can, if I had not read and imitated them. The Faculty
has come to me, strangely, without any formed Design of acquiring it.

There is a concealed Encomium on himself, his own Letters, in this Remark, but there
is an Observation too, which is worth considering. Men [wear?] themselves, by slow and imperceptible Degrees, into confirmed Habits of thinking,
Speaking, and Acting. He began early in Life, I suppose perhaps at Colledge, to read
these smooth, soft, Writers, and altho he never formed any Design of imitating their
Ease and Politeness, yet he gradually wore it into his Mind. He learned to write as
Children learn to Speak, without thinking what they do. Perhaps had he formed a Design
in his Youth of acquiring that Faculty and read Authors with that Design, he would
have acquired it much sooner and more perfectly.

The Principle in Nature is Imitation, Association of Ideas, and contrasting Habits.
How naturally we imitate, without Design or with, Modes of thinking, Speaking, Acting,
that please us! Thus we conform gradually to the Manners and Customs of our own family,
Neighbourhood, Town, Province, Nation &c. A[t] Worcester, I learned several Turns of Mind of Putnam, and at Boston I find my self
imitating Otis, &c.—But Q[uery], Who will learn the Art soonest, and most perfectly, he who reads without a Design
of extracting Beauties or he who reads with? The last undoubtedly. Design attends,
and observes nicely, and critically. I learned with Design to imitate Put’s Sneer,
his sly look, and his look of Contempt. This look may serve good Ends in Life, may
procure Respect.

To form a style, therefore, read constantly the best Authors. Get a Habit of clear
Thinking and strength and Propriety and Harmony of Expression. This one Principle
of Imitation would lead me thro the whole human System. A Faculty acquired accidentally,
without any Endeavours or forsight of the Effect. He read for Amuzement, not to learn
to write.

Let me recollect, and con over, all the Phenomena of Imitation that { 85 } I may take advantage of this Principle in my own make, that I may learn easier and
sooner.

Mem. To look in the Clerk’s office, for the Files of the Dispute concerning the Registry
of Vessells belonging to Newbury, viz. Mr. Prats state or Questions, and Mr. Gridleys
Answers.

1. This and the following more or less detached entries were probably written soon after
8 April but cannot be dated with any certainty.

2. Closing quotation mark supplied. It is likely, but not certain, that the following
sentence is a part of Fessenden’s statement rather than a statement by JA. Charles Apthorp (1698–1758) was a wealthy Boston merchant and prominent Anglican (Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, 2:545–546).

3. CFA’s reading. The two or three last words are now scarcely legible.

4. JA’s father. At a town meeting on 3 March 1759 three of the five Braintree selectmen
were replaced. Among them was Deacon John Adams, and among those newly elected were
Capt. Richard Brackett and Capt. Ebenezer Thayer (Braintree Town Records, p. 360, 365.

The Road is walled on each side with a Grove of Trees. The stillness, silence, and
the uniformity of the Prospect puts the Mind into a stirring, thoughtful Mood.

But the Reflections that are made in a Grove, are forgotten in the Town, and the Man
who resembles a saint in his Thoughts in the first, shall resemble [a] Devil in his Actions in the last.

In such silent scenes, as riding or walking thro the Woods or sitting alone in my
Chamber, or lying awake in my Bed, my Thoughts commonly run upon Knowledge, Virtue,
Books, &c. tho I am apt to forget these, in the distracting Bustle of the Town, and
ceremonious Converse with Mankind.

This morning rode to Moses Frenchs to get him to serve a Writ for me. He told me he
was not yet sworn, but was obliged to me for coming to him, and would be glad to serve
me at any Time, and would now rather than It should be any Damage to me. Thus he was
pleased, I hope secured. Men are only secured by falling in with their Inclination,
by favouring their Hopes, clearing their Prospects.

Then I went to Wales’. He was not at home. I followed him to Germantown. He served
the Writt. We returned together. He seemed { 86 } quite pleasant. Told me the Practice of the two Thayers, of Hollis, Niles, &c. They
drive a great stroke. There is two Thayers, 2 Niles’s, Faxon, Hollis, Wales, Moses
French, W. Penniman, are all pettifogging Dabblers in Iniquity and Law. I might except
2 Niles’s, Wales and French, and perhaps Faxon from the Iniquitous part. I hope that
Wales and French are secured to me. How they love Thayer I cant say. I hope they will
recommend me to Persons that they hear Speaking of Business, as Wm. Veasey did. Veasey
knew me, and mentioned me, to Shaw.

The Difference between a whole Day and a divided scattered Day.

Q[uery]. Can any Man take a Book in his hand, in the Morning, and confine his Thoughts to
that till Night. Is not such a Uniformity tiresome? Is not Variety more agreable,
and profitable too? Read one Book one Hour, then think an Hour, then Exercise an Hour,
then read another Book an Hour, then dine, smoke, walk, cutt Wood, read another Hour
loud, then think, &c. and thus spend the whole day in perpetual Variations, from Reading
to thinking, Exercise, Company, &c. But what is to be acquired by this Wavering Life,
but a Habit of Levity, and Impatience of Thought?

I never spent a whole Day upon one Book in my Life.

What is the Reason that I cant remove all Papers and Books from my Table, take one
Volume into my Hands, and read it, and then reflect upon it, till night, without wishing
for my Pen and Ink to write a Letter, or taking down any other Book, or thinking of
the Girls? Because I cant command my attention. My Thoughts are roving from Girls
to friends, from friends to Court, to Worcester, to Piscataquay,2 Newbury, and then to Greece and Rome, then to France, from Poetry to oratory, and
Law, and Oh, a rambling, Imagination. Could I fix my attention, and keep off every
fluttering Thought that attempts to intrude upon the present subject, I could read
a Book all Day. Wisdom, curse on it, will come soon or late.

I have to smooth and harmonise my Mind, teach every Thought within its Bounds, to
roll, and keep the equal Measure of the Soul.

H. went up to the Negroes Chamber over this little Room and awakened Jack and Ruby.
Ruby was frightened and screamed till H. pacified her at last. Jack got up to alight
a Candle and see if his Master was abed and if he found him up was to say he got up
to get some thing for his Child. Thus a Girls Invention is alone sufficient for every
Intrigue of this sort.

Accidents, as we call them, govern a great Part of the World, especially Marriages.
Sewal3 and Esther broke in upon H. and me and interrupted a Conversation that would have
terminated in a Courtship, which would in spight of the Dr.4 have terminated in a Marriage, which Marriage might have depressed me to absolute
Poverty and obscurity, to the End of my Life. But the Accident seperated us, and gave
room for Lincolns addresses, which have delivered me from very dangerous shackles,
and left me at Liberty, if I will but mind my studies, of making a Character and a
fortune.5

I never began an Explanation of my Designs and Thoughts so that she was obliged to
act without certain Knowledge. She had peculiar Reasons to desire an immediate Marriage,
viz. a young and a very fruitful Mother in Law,6 on whom her father fondly doats, &c. and she had peculiar Reasons to receive the
Drs. Addresses viz. The fondness of her father and his father, for the Match. The
Drs. family, Business, and Character. And, in oposition to these Inducements, she
had no Certainty of my Passions or Reason or Designs in her favour, but a strong suspicion
that I was apprised of the Drs. Designs, and determined to see her no more.—But the
Thing is ended. A tender scene! a great sacrifice to Reason!

Now let me collect my Thoughts, which have been long scattered, among Girls, father,
Mother, Grandmother, Brothers, Matrimony, Husling, Chatt, Provisions, Cloathing, fewel,
servants for a family, and apply them, with steady Resolution and an aspiring Spirit,
to the Prosecution of my studies. Now Let me form the great Habits of Thinking, Writing,
Speaking. Let my whole Courtship be applyed to win the Applause and Admiration of
Gridley, Prat, Otis, Thatcher &c. Let Love and Vanity be extinguished and the great
Passions of Ambition, Patriotism, break out and burn. Let little objects be neglected
and forgot, and great ones engross, arouse and exalt my soul.

The Mind must be aroused, or it will slumber. To make and [confirm?] in his Mind a Contempt of Cowardice, and an Admiration of Bravery.

I found a Passion growing in my heart and a consequent Habit of thinking, forming
and strengthening in my Mind, that would have eat out every seed of ambition, in the
first, and every wise Design or Plan in the last.

A Young fellow of fond amorous Passions, may appear quite cold and insensible. The
Love of Knowledge may prevail over the Love of { 88 } Girls. Old Men may be mistaken in their opinion of young ones. Mr. Goffe7 and Mr. Putnam, especially Goffe, thought me incapable of Gallantry and Intrigue.

Should have drawn a Confession from her (by shewing the Imprudence, Danger, Cruelty,
and Wickedness of her Conduct without that supposition) that she loved me, and was
determined to run all Hazards with me, to run the chance of Business, and success.
Should have tryed, what the Imputation of Jilting, and Wheedling, and hinting, for
a Courtship, in order to Torment, or at least to secure one for fear another should
fail, would have produced. Should have said, H. you was dissatisfied with your situation
and desirous of a Husband. In order to get one, you Wheedled Wibirt; you wheedled
Lincoln. You gave each of them hints and Encouragement to Court you. But especially
you wheedled me. For 6 months past you and I have never been alone together but you
have given me broad Hints, that you desired I should court you, &c. &c.

Used to say how moderate her Desires were. She cared not for Riches or Dress, nor
Gentility. She could live upon common Necessaries. Such Speeches used to be frequently
dropped to me, and before me. She used before their House was burned8 to say frequently before me in Company, and to me alone, she should admire to be
Courted a great while. She should admire a long Courtship. She would not be married
by any means, these 4 or 5 years; but since she lost that House and her Agreable Retirement,
solitude, and especially since her mother has been with Child again, she has said
to me, that nothing should persuade her to be married these seven Years if it were
not for her fathers young Wife, that [nothing?]9

Deed from Stephen Dudley, of Exeter, in N. Hampshire, Cordwainer, to Wm. Cunningham
of Boston Glaiser, of 150 Acres of Land, to be taken out of the Tract of Land that
Capt. Peter Renewitt and Abigail his Squaw gave to said Stephen by deed of Gift 7
of Jan. 1718, which Tract begins on the River 3 miles above Petuckaway mill in Exeter
and running 3 miles in breadth on Each side of said River and Ten miles in Length
up said River.

Husbandry may be studied by me either as a Phylsopher inquisitive into the secrets
of Nature in Vegetation, Generation, and of Art in Manufacture or as a Politician
and Patriot, desirous of promoting the Improvement of Laws &c. for the Interest of
the Public, or as a Private Man, selfishly [thirsting?] after Profit, in order to make money.

Yesterday afternoon, a Plea, Puis darrien Continuance,11 was argued { 90 } by Mr. Prat for the Plea, and G[ridley] and O[tis] against it. The Plea was, that after the last Continuance and before the 1st day
of the sitting of this Court this Term, viz. on such a day, one Allin one of the Plaintiffs
died. Mr. Prat argued that the Writ must abate, for it was clear Law, that the Writt
in this Case was ipso facto abated and might be dismissed at the Motion of any Person
as amicus Curiae. And of this opinion was the whole Court. G. took an Exception to
the Plea as imperfect in not giving the Plaintiff a better Writ. The whole Afternoon
was Spent in arguing this Point, and 20 Volumes of Institutes and Reporters, I suppose
were produced as authorities.12

(Otis aside. It makes me laugh to see Pratt lugg a Cart load of Books into Court to prove a Point
as clear as the Sun. The Action is as dead as a Hubb.)

Otis. I will grant, Mr. Prat, very readily, that there has been a time since Wm. the Conqueror
when this Plea would have abated this Writ in England. But I take it that Abatements
at this day are rather odious than favored and I dont believe that this Plea would
abate this Writ at any time within this Century in Westminster Hall.

This morning, the Action Patten vs. Basen was argued.13 It was [a] Case for not returning an Ex[ecutio]n. Prat and the Court, an Action will not lie against the officer for not returning
without averring and proving Special Damages, as that the Party was broke, run away,
or dead, leaving nothing. Then the special Damage may be laid equal to the whole Debt.
Gruchy v. Hews [Hughes] comes on this afternoon.14

Of Abatement by the Death of Parties.

The Rule is “That wherever the Death of any Party happens pending the Writt and yet
the Plea is in the same Condition, as if such Party were living, there such death
makes no Alteration; for where the death of the Parties makes no Change of Proceeding,
it would be unreasonable that the surviving Parties should make any Alteration in
their Writt; for if such Writ and Proscess were changed, twould let [ . . . ] but in the same Condition they were at the Death of the Parties; and ’twould be absurd
that what made no alteration should change the Writ and the Proscess;”15 and on this Rule all the Diversities turn.

1. Inst. 139. The first Difference is in Real Actions; where there are several Pleadings,
there is summons and severance, as there is in the most real Actions, there the death
of one of the Parties abates the suit; but in Personal and mixed Actions, where one
entire Thing is to be recovered, there the Death of the Parties does not abate the
Writt; and the Reason of the Difference is, where there are two Jointenants { 91 } and the one goes on to recover his Moiety, and the other will not proceed, there is
no Reason that he that is willing to proceed should not recover his Ritt, since such
tenant has a distinct Moiety, and therefore should have an Action to recover it. But
no Summons and severance lies in Personal Actions; as if Trespass be committed in
such Jointenants, they must both join in the Action, for as one may release the whole,
so the other may refuse to go on, and the other cant recover his Part of the Damage
without him; and so in Debt by an obligation to two, there can be no summons and severance,
because one of the joint obligees may release the Bond, and therefore may not go in
the Action; but if a Man appoint two men Executors, there shall be summons and severance,
because tho one of the Executors may release, tho such a Release is a Devastavit in
him; but if he will not proceed at Law, tis no Devastavit; and therefore both Executors
being only Trustees for the Person deceased, they shall not both be compelled to go
on together; but if one refuses, the other may bring his Action in the name of both,
and have summons and severance; for otherwise each Co-executor might by Collusion
with the Debtor and not proceeding, keep the other from recovering the assitts, and
not create a Devastavit in himself.

Coll. Hunt.

A single Adventure, Expedition, Undertaking or Incident in a Mans Life often renders
him forever afterwards attentive to Matters of that sort.

Coll. Hunt was highly entertained and gratified with my Relation of the Gallant bloody
Action between an English Privateer and two frenchmen in the West Indies. It Engaged
his Attention, and gave him a high Pleasure, which Mr. Olivers Project of improving
Husbandry, and making Profits, was not able to do.

He hearkened to the story of the fight, but was cold to the Project of inriching his
Country. He acquired at Louisbourg this Admiration of Bravery, which all the Perplexity,
Disgrace, and Indigence, which he has been brought to endure, since his Return from
that Expedition, has never been able to extinguish.

There he saw frequent Instances of daring Actions, and he heard such Actions applauded.
There he saw frequent Instances of Cowardice; and he heard such Persons despized,
which hightened the Distinction, which it is natural to Mankind to16

Justice with a Band, a Veil before her Eyes, sitting on the Globle, { 92 } with a Pair of scales and a sword in her right Hand, the scales hang below her hand,
the sword points to the Zenith with a Crown upon it, and with four pieces of something
in her left Hand. With her left foot she treads upon a Lion, the Emblem of strength,
i.e. Violence, and with her right upon a serpent, the Emblem of subtlety, i.e. fraud.
The Roman Eagle, with her Wings hovering, half spread, stands on her right Claw foot,
upon the Globle, by the left side of Justice, and extending her left Claw, in which
she grasps some Arrows, perhaps, towards the East.

Behind the Globle on the right hand of Justice, you see some stately Buildings, with
a fine Row of Roman statues, round the Roofs, and with the statue of an Horse and
Man on the Top of a Chimney almost behind Justice.

On the left Hand of Justice, you see the Roman Army, entrenched, and picketted in,
with a large Castle, and flag flying at a Distance.

At the Foot of Justice, on the left Hand, stands truth arrayed in a roman Habit with
her curled Hair, decently yet negligently tyed, pointing with her left Hand to Justice,
and with her Right, extending her Torch, over to an old Gentleman, who stands, at
the feet of Justice on the Right, with a large Book in his left Hand, a Pen in his
Right, and seems in a listening attentive Posture, taking down the Dictates of Justice
by the light of Truth. Q[uery], is this old Gentleman Justinian? There are four figures, or there is a Groupe of
figures, at the feet of this old Gentleman, which I am unable to decypher. They are
habited differently. One is black like a Negro, with a Chain of Beeds about his Neck
and a Crown of Feathers on his Head. Is this an African? The next is black too, but
without any Beads or Crown, but he seems to wear the Proboscis of an Elephant, upon
his C[ap?]. The other two are clothed in Roman Habits, one in Armour. The three last are on
their Knees, and seem to shrink from the sight of Justice and Truth. Q.—was not the
Architecture and statuary, behind the Globle and Justice, designed to represent the
roman skill in those Arts. They must have had Master Architects to build those grand
and beautiful Piles, and Master Statuaries, to make those statues, round the Roofs,
and on the Chimney Tops.

And is not the entrenched Army on the left Hand designed to represent the Glory and
Terror of their Arms.

I cannot decypher half these figures.

P[arson] W[ibird] is crooked, his Head bends forwards, his shoulders are round and his Body is writhed,
and bended, his head and { 93 } half his Body, have a list one Way, the other half declines the other Way, and his
lower Parts from his Middle, incline another Way. His features are as coarse and crooked
as his Limbs. His Nose is a large roman Nose with a prodigious Bunch Protuberance,
upon the Upper Part of it. His Mouth is large, and irregular, his Teeth black and
foul, and craggy. His Lips [ . . . ] to command, when he speakes, they dont move easily and limberly pliant. His lips
are stiff, rigid, not pliant and supple. His Eyes are a little squinted, his Visage
is long, and lank, his Complexion wan, his Cheeks are fallen, his Chin is long, large,
and lean. These are the Features, these the Limbs, and this the Figure of the worthy
Mr. Wibirt.

But his Air, and Gesture, is still more extraordinary. When he stands, He stands,
bended, in and out before and behind and to both Right and left; he tosses his Head
on one side. When he prays at home, he raises one Knee upon the Chair, and throws
one Hand over the back of it. With the other he scratches his Neck, pulls the Hair
of his Wigg, strokes his Beard, rubbs his Eyes, and Lips.

When he Walks, he heaves away, and swaggs on one side, and steps almost twice as far
with one foot, as with the other.

When he sitts, he sometimes lolls on the arms of his Chair, sometimes on the Table.
He entwines his leggs round the Leggs of his Chair, lays hold of the Iron Rod of the
stand with one Hand. Sometimes throws him self, over the back of his Chair, and scratches
his Hed, Vibrates the foretop of his Wigg, thrusts his Hand up under his Wigg, &c.

When he speakes, he cocks and rolls his Eyes, shakes his Head, and jerks his Body
about.

Thus clumsy, careless, slovenly, and lazy is this sensible Man.

It is surprizing to me that the Delicacy of his Mind has not corrected these Indecent,
as well as ungraceful Instances of Behaviour. He has Wit, and he has Fancy, and he
has Judgment. He is a Genius. But he has no Industry, no Delicacy, no Politeness.
Tho’ he seems to have a sort of Civility, and Cleverness in his Manners. A civil,
clever Man. He observes that in Dana which I have observed—a cleverness, a good Humored
look.

What is it, that Settles Men’s opinions of others? It is Avidity, Envy, Revenge, Interest.

C[olonel] Q[uincy] will represent Eb. Thayer as one of the worst of Men, as a Conspirator against his
Country, as a Cataline.

C[olonel’s] Friendship is not worth a wise Mans seeking, nor his { 94 } Enmity worth fearing. As long as you flatter his Vanity, gratify his avarice, or favour
his Ambition, you will be a great Genius, an honest Man, a good man, in short you
will be every thing, but as soon as you obstruct any of his Views you will be a silly
man, a Knave, in short every thing that is bad.

While the Governor as he thought, had a great Opinion of him, the Governor was wise,
learned, industrious &c., but when he found the Governor despized him, the Governor
had no Principles, was guided by self Interest &c.17

Coll. Q. I have discovered the Phylosophers stone in military Matters.

[ . . . ] this is the darling, favorite Theme still. Tho every Man who hears this scheme conceives
at once the most contemptible Opinion of it, yet no one chuses to shew his Disapprobation
of it. A few Queries, and distant Proposals, are the Utmost that has been said against
it, to him.—Thus he is flattered to his face by Nods, and Winks, of seeming Assent
and compliance, and cursed behind his back as a Villain and a fool. Oh, envied State
of Greatness.

He calls it a scheme to do men good in spight of their Teeth—forcing food down a hungry
Mans Throat. The Philosophers Stone &c. Others say he is a cursed Rogue, a dutiful
son of his father the Devil, he wants to get Money into his Pocket. Thus the Coll.
and some of his Company differ in Opinion, of his Contrivance. He thinks, tis fatherly,
patriotical, sagacious. They think it inimical, diabolical and silly!

You may hint to him particular Defects of his Plan, and he will contrive Amendments,
but the general Plan would never be [exploded?] by his Consent. I will not attempt to undeceive him any more. This scheme is Mentis
gratissimus Error. demptus, Error, gratissimus Error the most agreable Error mentis
of the Mind, demptus taken away, per Vim, by violence. Pol. by Pollux, amici my friends,
occidistis you have killed me, non servastis [you] have not preserved me, [saved?] me alive, cui, sic extorta Voluptas—Pleasure extorted, torn away, cui from which
thus.18

This political scheme is mentis gratissimus Error Mentis [ . . . ] Error. It will be told to the Disadvantage of [his] Character, for sense and Honesty. Twill furnish his Enemies with a topick of scandal
and will introduce Jealosy’s and suspicions into the Minds of his friends. He will
suffer the most by it.

The Notes will give offence. A rich Man will be allowed to give a Note, but a poor
Man must pay the Money. This will be a Distinction between poor and rich, a Partiality
to the rich and Oppression of the poor. It will occasion such Ravings, and swearing
and Impudence and Insolence as was never seen by a military officer in this Company.
Bass and my Uncle told him, how it would be received. He is wrongheadedly Headstrong,
headstrongly Wrongheaded.

Ned tells a story tolerably well. He told of [illegible name]. He was a better Prophet than Elijah for he stretched himself on her but once to
bring her to Life whereas Elijah did 3 times.19 He breathed into her the Breath of Life. Ned told the Duke of Whartons Character
and Life, &c. Ned was sociable, told the stories he had read pretty well, &c. Billy
was sociable too, but awed, afraid.

They told of the wickedest jokes that had been put upon Nat Hurd, by some fellows
in Boston, who found out that he had such a Girl at his shop, at such a time. One
went to him and pretended to make a confidant of him. Oh god, what shall I do? That
Girl, [ . . . ] her, has given me the Clap. That scared him and made him cry, Oh damn her, what shall
I do? I saw her such a Night. I am [peppered?]. He went to the Dr. [ . . . ] and was salivated for the Clap. Then they sent him before Justice Phillips, then
before Justice Tyler, in short they played upon him till they provoked him so that
he swore, he would beat the Brains out of the first man that came into his shop, to
plague him with his [ . . . ].

I think it is an equal Proof of Piety, Wit, and sensuality.—This was affected. I thought
it witty, wise, smart. It could not but disgust.

Why have I not Genius to start some new Thought. Some thing that will surprize the
World. New, grand, wild, yet regular Thought that may raise me at once to fame.

Where is my Soul? where are my Thoughts.

When shall I start some new Thought, make some new Discovery, that shall surprize
the World with its Novelty and Grandeur?

Coll. Q[’s] End is Popularity. He intends to procure Votes by his schemes for raising Men, but
if he had used all his Ingenuity to con• { 96 } trive a scheme to disgust People, to raise scruples, Jealousies, and Contempt, he
could not have found a better. He will loose more Votes than he will get by this Project.

Would it not save trouble to give the Men that he shall impress after 4 o’clock, leave
to inlist and date their Inlistment a few days sooner?

Is it not absurd to study all Arts but that of Living in the World, and all sciences
but that of Mankind? Popularity is the Way to gain and figure.

The Arts of Gain are necessary. You may get more by studying Town meeting, and Training
Days, than you can by reading Justinian and all his voluminous and heavy Commentators.

Mix with the Croud in a Tavern, in the Meeting House or the Training Field, and grow
popular by your agreable assistance in the Tittle tattle of the Hour, never think
of the deep hidden Principles of natural, civil, or common Law, for thoughts like
these will give you a gloomy Countenance and a stiff Behaviour.

I should talk with Tirrells, Lamberts, Clarks, Thayers, Faxons, Beal, Wales, French
&c. about changing Horses. Offer to change or sell, trade in any Thing.

It is certain that Retirement will loose its Charms if it is not interrupted, by Business,
and Activity. I must converse and deal with Mankind, and move and stir from one scene
of Action and Debate and Business, and Pleasure, and Conversation, to another and
grow weary of all before I shall feel the strong Desire of retiring to contemplation
on Men and Business and Pleasure and Books.

After hard Labour at Husbandry, Reading and Reflection in Retirement will be a Relief
and a high refined Pleasure. After attending a Town Meeting, watching the Intrigues,
Acts, Passions, Speeches, that pass there, a Retreat to reflect, compare, distinguish
will be highly delightful. So after a Training Day, after noting the Murmurs, Complaints,
Jealousies, Impudence, Envy that pass in the field, I shall be pleased with my solitude.

Transitions from study to Business, from Business to Conversation and Pleasure, will
make the Revolution of study still more agreable and perhaps not less profitable,
for we are very apt, in total Retirement, to forget the sciences, and to smoak, and
trifle and drone it too much.

I have been very negligent and faulty, in not treating Deacon Savil, { 97 } Nat. Belcher, Deacon Belcher &c. with more Attention, and sprightliness. I should
bow and look pleasant to Deacon Savil, and talk with him about News, War, Ministers,
Sermons &c. Should watch critically every Word that Nat Belcher says, and let him
see by the Motions of the Muscles of my face, that I have discernment between wise
and foolish, witty and silly, candid and ill natured, grave and humourous speeches
and let him know on proper occasions I can vent a Smart Repartee. Should always speak
and shake Hands with the Deacon, inquire after his Wife, Sons, S[amuel], W[illiam], E[lijah], and humour his talkative Disposition.—It is of no small Importance to sett the Tongues
of old and young Men and Women a prating in ones favour.

As to Dr. Savil and his Wife, I have dismissed all my Guards before Them, and acted
and spoke at Random. But I might easily gain their warmest Words and assiduous Assistance,
by visiting seldomer, by using tender and soothing, instead of rough and reproachful
Language, and by complying with their Requests of riding out with her, and reading
Plays, once in a while, to them in the Evening.

But I have been rash, boastful, prophane, uncivil, Blustering, threatning, before
them.

Let me remark P[arson] Wibirts Popularity. He plays with Babes and young Children that begin to prattle,
and talks with their Mothers, asks them familiar, pleasant Questions, about their
affection to their Children. His familiar careless way of conversing with People,
Men and Women. He has Wit, and Humour.

Ripping, i.e., using the Words faith, Devil, I swear, damnable, [cursed?], &c., displease the Dr. but especially his Wife.

Asserting dogmatically on Points of Province Law which he knows more of than I, by
several Years experience, and Conversation with People concerning their Estates, Law
suits, &c., and being fretted, disgusts them very much.—I have more faults, Mistakes,
Imprudences, follies, rashness to answer for in the Drs. House than in all the Town
besides.

I am to attend a Vendue this afternoon at Lamberts. My F[ather], C[aptain] Bracket and Thayer are a Committee to lease out the Town Lands to the highest Bidder.
Let me remark the Management of the { 98 } sale, and the Behaviour of Persons especially of Thayer and Bracket, watch his Treatment
of People, and their Treatment of him.

Let me ask myself this Question when I return. What have I seen, heard, learned? What
hint observed to lift myself into Business, what Reputation or Disgrace have I got,
by attending this Vendue. My Character will be Spread, and mended or injured by it.

I was consulted by 2 Men this afternoon, who would not have applied to me if I had
not been at Vendue, E. Niles and Elijah Belcher. And the Questions they asked, have
led me into Useful Thoughts and Inquiries. I find hints, and Inquiries, arise sooner
in the World than in my Study.

It would be an agreable and useful speculation to inquire into that Faculty which
we call Imagination. Define it, enquire the Good Ends it answers in the human system,
and the Evils it sometimes produces.

What is the Use of Imagination? It is the Repository of Knowledge. By this faculty,
are retained all the Ideas of visible objects, all the observations we have made in
the Course of Life on Men and Things, our selves &c.

I am conscious that I have the faculty of Imagination, that I can at Pleasure review
in my Thoughts, the Ideas and Assemblages of Ideas that have been before in my Mind.
Can revive the scenes, Diversions, sports of Childhood, Youth. Can recall my youthful
Rambles, to the farms,20 frolicks, Dalliances, my lonely Walks thro the Groves, and swamps, and fields, and
Meadows at Worcester. Can imagine my self with the wildest Tribe of Indians in America
in their Hunting, their Warrs, their tedious Marches, thro wild swamps and Mountains.
Can fly by this faculty to the Moon, Planets, fixed Starrs, unnumbered Worlds. Can
cross the Atlantic and fancy my self in Westminster Hall, hearing Causes in the Courts
of Justice, or the Debates in the Houses of Commons or Lords.—As all our knowledge
is acquired by Experience, i.e. by sensation or Reflection, this faculty is necessary
to retain the Ideas we receive and the observations we make, and to recall them, for
our Use, as Occasion requires.

I am conscious too, that this faculty is very active and stirring. It is constantly
in Action unless interrupted by the Presence of external Objects, by Reading, or restrained
by Attention. It hates Restrain[t], it runs backward to past scenes &c. or forward to the future. It flyes into the
Air, dives in the sea, rambles to foreign Countries, or makes { 99 } excursions [to] foreign planetary starry Worlds. These are but Hints, irregular observations, not
digested into order.

But [what] are the Defects of this faculty? What are the Errors, Vices, Habits, it may betray
us into, if not curbed? What is the Danger.

I must know all the Ends of this faculty, and all its Phenomena, before I can know
all its Defects. Its Phenomena are infinitely various, in different Men, and its Ends
are different. Therefore its Defects must be almost infinitely various. But all its
Defects may be reduced to general Laws.

The Sphere of Imagination includes both Actuality and Possibility, not only what is
but what may be.

One Use of Imagination, is to facilitate the Acquisition and Communication of Knowledge.
How does it facilitate the Acquisition. It lays up, It retains, the Ideas of Things
and the Observations we make upon them. By reviving past scenes, or creating new,
it suggests Thoughts and inquiries. Starts Hints and doubts, and furnishes Reason
with Materials in our retired Hours. In the Hours of solitude, Imagination recalls
the Ideas of Things, Men, Actions, Characters, and Reason reduces them to order, and
forms Inferences and Deductions from them.

How does it help to communicate? Why by recalling our Knowledge, and by comparing
abstract Notions with sensible Images—by Metaphor, allusion &c.

Another End of Imagination, may be personal Pleasure and Entertainment. We take Pleasure
in viewing the Works of Nature, and the Productions of Art, as Painting, Statuary,
Poetry, oratory &c., but are not these rather objects and Pleasures of sense than
of Imagination?

We take Pleasure in recollecting the Sports, Diversions, Business, scenes of Nature
&c. that we have seen in our past Lives. We take Pleasure in fancying our selves in
Places, among Objects, Persons, Pleasures, when we are not; and a still greater Pleasure
in the Prospect which Imagination constantly gives us of future Pleasure, Business,
Wealth, fame &c.

This Prospect of futurity, which Imagination gilds and brightens, is the greatest
Spur to Industry and Application. The scholars spur to study. The Commanders spur
[to] Activity and Courage. The Statesmans Spur to the Invention and Execution of Plans
of Politicks. The Lovers Spur to assiduity, and &c.

Coll. [Quincy] told the Compliment the Governor passed on him in { 100 } calling him one of the most active Members, before 20 Persons [in a Tavern?], and one was lolling out his Tongue, another shrugging his shoulders and another
sneering all the Time.

Men are aspiring and ambitious in their souls [and hearts?] as their Imaginations are vivid.

I had an acking Void within my Breast, this night. I feel anxious, eager, after something.
What is it? I feel my own Ignorance. I feel concern for Knowledge, and fame. I have
a dread of Contempt, a quick sense of Neglect, a strong Desire of Distinction.

Went this morning to D.B. [Deacon Belcher?] and L.B. to see the Leases under which they held the Town Lands. I learned enough
to reward me for the Trouble, tho I could not see the Leases. I find that as much
knowledge in my Profession is to be acquired by Conversing with common People about
the Division of Estates, Proceedings of Judge of Probate, Cases that they have heard
as Jurors, Witnesses, Parties, as is to be acquired by Books. Talked familiarly with
Deacon B. and his Wife. Talked to N.B. [Nathaniel Belcher?] about The Ile of Orleans, and the Contrast between the present and the last administration,
to J. Curtis, of Husbandry, and the Tittletattle of the Town. Thus I believe I have
lost no Credit yet, but have gained Credit as a knowing as well as a familiar young
fellow. I must sett the Town to talking about me.

What shall I say to Majr. Crosby to procure his Love and Admiration too? Ask him for
Executions, Writs, News Papers, what days he usually attends at Home to try Causes.
What say to Deacon Webb, to procure his Love and Ad[miration?]. Papers.

As I rode under the Rocks and savines in the common the Project darted into my Head
of writing a Poem under the Title of the matrimonial Ballance, or the Ballance of
Celibacy. A Ballance for weighing the Pleasures of Matrimony against the Pains, the
Inconveniences vs. the Conveniences. Let me invent the Fable. Wisdom appears to a
young fellow, as he sits meditating on Celibacy and Matrimony, and presents him with
these scales. How shall I describe Wisdom? the Scales? that every Air, Shape, Colour,
may convey some moral Instruction.

B[illy] B[elcher] has a very mean Opinion of all the Quincies, all 3 Neds, and Jos[iah] and Samll. and Henry.

Cranch has been mean since, if Q[uincy] was before the first difference between them.

Billy B. He says he will charge you with 1/2 the Rent of the Warehouse in B[oston]. If he does, I can swear that he declared to me in a very solemn manner that he kept
the Warehouse open only to oblige me.21

This might be new. The Coll. and all his sons are insincere. They make a greater shew,
more Expressions of Kindness and Friendship, than they really have for any Man. He
wanted to convince B. that he was a great Benefactor to him. Perhaps he wanted his
good Words at home at Braintree, to his father and Brother.

M[aster?] Cleverly. I have no Opinion of our Courts. They act as the spirit moves them. There is no
Dependance upon Judge Sewall,22 nor Judge Hutchinson,23 the Governor &c.

He is as hungry after Vices and Follies in the Characters of the Quincies, and of
our Courts, as a Wolf ever was for Prey. An Instance of Weakness or Wickedness practiced
by any Quincy gratifies him to the quick. He has no Candour, no Charity. He is censorious.
He is spightful.

Dr. Savil. Ephraim Thayer told a Story the other day that he saw a small ground Squirrell run
away with 2 large Ears. He introduced it with a solemn Train of Circumstances. He
raised a great deal of Corn, and could not imagine how it went. He could not suspect
any of his Neighbours, and he thought no Creature but Man could take it of[f] so fast. At last he lay and watched it and soon found that the squirrells were the
Thieves for he saw one single ground squirrell run out of his fold with 2 Ears.—This
Pun.

Another time he was a gunning and he saw at a little distance a Partridge at the foot
of a Tree and a grey Squirell, at the Top of it. He wanted to get both, but he knew
if he shot at the squirrel the Partridge would fly, and if he shot at the Partridge
the squirrel would run away before he could charge his Gun a second time. He tho’t
he would contrive to kill both at once, and he crept round in fair Sight of both,
and shot and killed both at once. Now one must be very quick and [very expert?] to hold the Gun just at the Root long eno’ to kill the Partridge and then raise it
to the Top in order to kill with the other half of the Charge the squirrel at the
Top. But the Riddle was, The Tree was blown down, and he got the Partridge and Squirrel
in a very fair Range.

An Advocate. The Patron of the Cause, assisting the Litigant with his Advice, the
Person who pleads or represents the Cause of his Client. They should not be interrupted
in their studies by [ . . . ]. De quota litis.24 Tis a public off[ence?].

1. This approximate and indefinite date is the best that can be assigned to the long
series of wholly undated entries that begin JA’s Diary booklet “No. 3.” This “paper book” (our D/JA/3) is made up of loose leaves
and small gatherings, some originally stitched together with thread and some apparently
not. Since such stitching as there once was has now largely worn away, and since in
composing his Diary JA sometimes left blank pages, or portions of pages, that he filled in later, it is
now impossible to determine the original order of some of the entries. It may only
be said that the earliest ones in this booklet were legal notes, set down before JA had filled up the preceding “paper book” (D/JA/2) early in April 1759; these are
now embedded among diary entries that extend into the summer of 1759 and possibly
later. The MS contains entries in small blank spaces in the margins, others written upside down
on pages bearing other matter, some entries begun but never finished by the diarist,
and still others that he may have completed on pages now lost from the MS. Only one entry was fully dated by JA, that of 29 June 1759, about halfway through D/JA/3.

Most of the entries were written in a hasty, slipshod way, and some whole pages are
badly worn and faded, necessitating at times a reconstruction of the text that is
not wholly satisfactory to the editors. It is perhaps for these reasons that large
portions of D/JA/3 were omitted in the early transcripts made for JQA and corrected by CFA. Moreover, in his edition of JA’s Diary CFA omitted all but a few selections from this booklet. These selections give only a
hint or two of JA’s protracted affair with Hannah Quincy and no hint at all of JA’s first impressions of Miss Abigail Smith of Weymouth, who five years later became
his wife.

After careful study the editors have decided that they have no good choice but to
print all the entries in their present physical order in the MS, scrambled though they may be, simply grouping them under the assigned dates of Spring
1759 and Summer 1759 according to whether they precede or follow the single dated
entry of 29 June.

2. Spelling very doubtful. The Piscataqua River empties into the Atlantic at Portsmouth,
N.H.

3. Jonathan Sewall (1728–1796), Harvard 1748; lawyer, loyalist, and, until their separation by the events leading up to the Revolution,
JA’s intimate friend. He married Esther Quincy in 1764.

5. The following paragraph and a number of later entries in D/JA/3 touching on JA’s romantic interest in Hannah Quincy were omitted by CFA in editing the Diary. Evidently that interest was by no means ended by the incident
recorded in the present entry, though, as explained above, the chronological sequence
of numerous undated entries in this part of the MS is very uncertain.

6. Elizabeth (Waldron) Quincy, 2d wife of Col. Josiah Quincy. She had married Quincy in 1756 and is said to have
died later in the present year (Salisbury, Family-Memorials, 1:356); but see the entry of 2 Dec. 1760 and note 3 there.

7. That is, Edmund Trowbridge, the Cambridge lawyer and judge, who as a young man had
used the name Goffe.

8. Col. Josiah Quincy’s house was burned on 17 May 1759 (Boston Evening Post, 21 May 1759). Though the allusion to this event very strongly suggests that the
present entry is out of chronological order and belongs later in the Diary, there
is nothing in the MS itself to support this conjecture. See also p. 111–113, below.

9. The entry breaks off thus at the end { 103 } of a left-hand page in MS. A leaf or leaves may therefore be missing from the MS, but there are instances in this booklet of JA’s deliberately leaving sentences unfinished.

10. This and the following detached paragraphs on husbandry were omitted by CFA in editing the Diary.

11. Puis darrein continuance: “A plea which is put in after issue joined, for the purpose
of introducing new matter” (Bouvier, Law Dictionary, 2:394).

12. The case was that of William Thompson, appellant, v. John Allen et al., appellees, in the Superior Court, Suffolk, Feb. term, 1759. The
argument JA records took place on 1 March (Superior Court of Judicature, Minute Book 71; Records, 1757–1759, fol. 522–523). These notes by JA must therefore have been taken down on 2 March, well before the regular Diary entries
in D/JA/3 begin (see note 1, above).

13. Probably in the Suffolk Inferior Court, whose records for this period are missing.

June 29. 1759.

Have this moment finished Woods new Institute of the Imperial or civil Law.1 It is a great Help in the study of Van Muyden and Justinian. I understand Wood much
better for having read Van Muyden, and shall now understand Van Muyden much better
for having read Wood.

1. Thomas Wood, A New Institute of the Imperial or Civil Law, London, 1704, went through several editions.

Mr. Wibirt. Ld. Chancellor Hardwick used at night to take off the Robes of his office and lay
them aside. “There Ld. Chancellor lie there till morning.” This Story means that he
assumed the state and Dignity of his office, when he was in the Exercise of it, but
threw off all state with his Robes and shewed the sociable Friend and Companion.

P[arson] W[ibird]. Out of H[annah] and E[sther] might be made a very personable Woman but not a great soul.

She is pleased. I find that the Chat I had with H. is uppermost in my mind. While
my Eyes are on my Book, my Attention, my Imagination is playing and prating with her.
These scenes of Pleasure make too deep Impressions on my Imagination.

Again I find my Thoughts ruminating the idle Chat, and Banter, I had with K. and Easther.
A Contest, a Combat between Reason and Passion is unequal. A struggle between Reflections
upon Law and Reflections upon Love, between art Inclination to study and an Inclination
to ruminate on the Prate, Banter, laughter, looks, airs of the Girls, is likely to
be followed by Victory on the side of Trifles.

I asked Mr. Wibirt if he made the fowl eat his Comb and Gills to make him couragious?—and
Nan.3 broke out into a triumphant, awkward, silly, shamefaced, malignant Laugh, and cryed,
why some has been cutt off of your Head, lately, did you eat it to make you couragious?
You eat it I believe and that made you so couragious.— This is ill breeding.

I find, that by walking, riding, and talking so much, I have got a restless Habit.
As I set, writing or reading a Thought, a Desire of running over to the Drs. will
dart into my Head, and I feel a [damp?] in suppressing of it. Next minute a Thought and desire of running down to Dr. Webbs,
John Mills’s &c. Thus Reflections upon past and Projects for future Pleasures, interrupt
my studies.

Enim for omnis Res, every Thing. Virtus, Virtue. Fame, Decorum, both divine and human
Things, obey, bow with Reverence to fair Riches: which, whoever has accumulated, heaped
up, he will be handsome, valiant, just [ . . . ] wise, and a King, and what ever he will.

Novation.4 An obligation is abolished, by Novation. A Transfer of the 1st Obligation into another.
Transfer the obligation by Changing the Person, shift the Debtor. I take A.B. for
my Debtor, for that Debt which was owed me by B.C. Dr. Savel owes me 10 Dollars, I
discharge him and take J. Field for Paymaster. Tis only a Transfer, a shifting the
obligation from the Dr. to Field. That obligation which lay on Sempronius to pay me
10 Dolls, is now on Titius. Or Novation may be by transferring one obligation into
another while the same Persons continue.

Sempronious owes me £10 on Account. This £10 by mutual Consent { 105 } is acknowledged to be due to [me?] as [money?] lent him, cui Bono.

May I call them 2 sorts of Novation. Quibus Modis, by what Ways—by what Means, by
what Ways, an obligation is taken away or abolished. Concerning Novation or Renewal.
This Conversion is made by Words or Stipulation. Besides an obligation is taken away
by Renewal, as, if that which Sejus owed you, if that which Savil owed you, you should
stipulate to be [given?] by Titius. If you should stipulate that that should be given paid by Titius which
Sejus owed you. For by the Intervention of a new Person, a new obligation is born,
springs, grows, and the 1st is abolished, translata in Posteriorum, is transferred
on the latter, so that some times, altho the latter stipulation is useless, yet the
first by the Law of Renewal is taken away. As if that which you owe to Titius, and
he stipulated by the Pupil without the Authority of a Tutor. There are many ways,
in which by the Law itself an Obligation is abolished. In this Title only 4 are related.
Novation is a transfusion and Translation of a former Debt, into another obligation,
civil or natural, and is either voluntary, which is made by the Agreement of Parties,
or necessary, which is made [ . . . ]5 by a Joining of Issues and the sentence of the Judge. This does not diminish the
Right of the Plaintiff.

Novation moreover is made either the Persons of the Creditor and Debtor remaining:
or these Persons changed. Continuing which either the Cause of [ . . . ] is changed or a new quality is added, or an old one substituted, so that it be acted
among the Contracting Parties. A Mutation Change of Persons happens [three] Ways, either the Person of the Creditor being changed, or of the Debtor, which in
specie <i.e. in this form> is called Delegation, or by changing the Person of both. In Delegation a twofold
Act ought to be considered, the first between the delegating and the delegated in
which naked Consent is sufficient, declared by Writing or a Nod or by any other manner,
in which Consent it may be [defined?].

Delegation is a Command, by which a Debtor substitutes his Debtor in his own Place
to his own Creditor. Another Act is committed between a Delegate and him to whom the
Delegation is made in which a stipulation is required. A stipulation, by which a Debtor
delegate to a stipulating Creditor to [whom?] delegated, promises that [he] is about to pay the Debt, in whose Name the Delegation is made.

Acceptilation is an imaginary Payment, an Acknowledgment of the Creditor, that he
has been paid when in truth he has not, with Design to discharge the Debtor. Acceptilation
is a stipulation by which a { 106 } Creditor, with a design of dissolving the obligation answers the Debtor interrogating,
that he has received his Debt when [indeed?] he has not. Simple Acceptilation is that by which is abolished only an Obligation
contracted by Words. An Exception is an Exclusion, barring of an Action [ . . . ] by law.

Consider what figure is fittest for you to make. Consider what Profession you have
chosen? The Law. What Rule and Method must I observe to make a figure to be useful,
and respectable in that Station. Ask this Question upon every Occasion, of what Use
to the Lawyer? of what use at the Bar—[to have?] perfection of Knowledge in Theory or Expertness in Practice, or Eloquence at Bar?
Let my Views concenter, and terminate in one focus, in one Point, a great, useful,
virtuous Lawyer. With this View I might plan a system of study for seven Years to
come, that should take in most Parts of Science and Literature. I might study Mathematics,
and Poetry and Rhetorick and Logick, as auxiliary Sciences and Arts, but my principal
Attention should be directed at british Law, and roman and Grecian Antiquities.

Gad. Chd.6 I set out once for a merry, jovial fellow. Merriment and Jollity, a thoughtless,
careless Air, humming a Tune, &c. are esteemed the Supream Excellence of human Nature
by some Men.

I have slid insensibly of late into a Channell of Prattle with Dr. Savel that will
carry me into folly if I dont get out of it. I talk <dogmatically> big, impudent, bully like, and think it wit, sense and Eloquence.

Let me avoid such silly and indecent freedoms with the Dr. and such silly, affected
drollery with his Wife and Niese.

I shall loose the natural Course of my Thoughts.

Trumbull has nothing new upon the Subject. His Principles are all taken from ancient
Moralists, and from Dr. Clark, Mr. Hutchinson, Bp. Butler, Ld. Shaftesbury and Mr.
Pope.

Nat. Gard[ner].7 I can never recollect Mens Names. I remembered your Face, and Person, but I could
not recollect your Name.

This is a Habit of Inattention, a Habit of ruminating on Poetry, &c., on what he has
read as he walks the Streets. This slowness of Memory, is consistent with ready Wit.

His Memory is very quick and prompt sometimes, tho it is very slow { 107 } at others.—Ruggles now is a contrast. Ruggles has the most constant Presence of Mind.
He never makes Blunders thro Inattention. He received Money from 1/2 a dozen Gentlemen,
and then rummaged his Pocketts, and dropd8 with John Chandler with as much Composure as if he had been a week in studying how
to behave. And, upon that sudden Occasion, at Worcester, he planned his scheme in
a moment, and he managed every Part of it with as much Readiness and Propriety as
he could have done, if he had prepared himself for it, a week before hand.

N. Gard[ner] is heedless, and inattentive, has no Presence of Mind. Ruggles is the Man for Attention.

Dan. [Treadwell].9 There is a linear, a superficial and a solid Amplification. Thus if a Globe of one
Inch in Diameter, appears thro a Microscope, 10 Inches in Diameter, This Microscope
magnifies lineally 10 times, superficially 100 times and in solidity 1000 times, because
the solidity is amplified in a cubical and the superficies in a quadratical Proportion
to the Amplification of the Diameter. So that a Glass which magnifies in Diameter
only 10 times, magnifies in solidity 1000 times.

Any Attraction or Repulsion that should accelerate or retard the Motion of the Comet
would alter the Excentricity of its Elipsis and its Inclination too, if the attracting
or repelling Body was without the Plane of the Comets Orbit.

Treadwell and I were four Hours on the Road to Boston. Our Horses never went out of
a Walk and I believe, sometimes almost stood still, while we were engaged in Conversation
upon Mathematicks, Physicks, Astronomy, optics &c. I am ashamed of my self. Treadwell
[h]as had great Advantages, and has greatly improved them. He bears a great share in
all Conversation, upon Politicks, War, Geography, Physicks &c.

Treadwell. The Rule for determining the Specific Gravity of a Body is to multiply not its Superficies,
but its Capacity, its solid Contents into its Weight. For two Bodies of the same Metal
of the same specific Gravity but of different Figures as a Sphere and a Cube e.g.
may have equal surfaces but unequal solid Contents, and on the other Hand equall solid
Contents or Capacity and unequal surfaces. Suppose a Sphere and Cube of Gold, of equal
superficies, the Sphere will have the greatest Capacity.

Treadwell. Sewall and Mr. Langdon together made a very great Blunder.10 They made just observations of the Comet, but they drew several false Consiquences
from those observations. I was sorry for Sewall is a very ingenious, young fellow.
I blamed him for printing so hastily.

Quere, does the Capacity, the Solid Content, bear the same Proportion to the Weight,
when the Matter is in one Sphere, as it does when divided into 20 Spheres.

Take a Sphere of gold one foot in Diameter, and divide it into 12 Globes, Quere, will
the solid Content, the Capacity be increased?

Parson Smith has no small share of Priest Craft.11—He conceals his own Wealth, from his Parish, that they may not be hindered by knowing
it from sending him Presents.—He talks very familiarly with the People, Men and Women
of his Parish, to gain their affection.— He is [a] crafty designing Man.—He watches Peoples Looks and Behaviour.—He laughs at Parson
Wibirts careless Air and Behaviour—his Walk across the Room, his long step and his
Clapping his naked sides and Breasts with his Hands before the Girls.—He made just
Remarks on the Character of Mr. Maccarty.—his Conceit, his orthodoxy, his Ignorance
&c. and I caught him, several times, looking earnestly at my face.—He is not one of
the heedless, inattentive Crew, that take no Notice of Mens Behaviour and Conversation
and form no Judgment of their Characters.

Polly and Nabby are Wits.12 Ned will not take Account of all of every Colour that spring from the Quincys. Easthers
Simile.

A Man of fond Passions. Cranch was fond of his Friend, fond of his Girl, and would
have been fond of his Wife and Children. Tender and fond. Loving and compassionate.
H.Q. is of the same Character, fond of her Brother, fond of herself and tender[ly] pitiful. Q[uery], are fondness and Wit compatible? P[arson] S[mith]s Girls have not this fondness, nor this Tenderness.

Fondling and Indulgence. They are the faulty Effects of good Nature. Good nature is
H’s universal Character. She will be a fond, tender Wife, and a fond indulgent Mother.
Cranch is endeavoring to amend this Defect, to correct this fault in his Character,
he affects an Asperity, to the Children, to his old Friends. His former Complaisance
{ 109 } is vanished.—Do real Fondness, and Frankness, always go together. They met in C. and
they met in H.—Fondness and Candour, and Frankness. Frankness, and Simplicity. Fondness
is doting Love. Candor is a Disposition to palliate faults and Mistakes, to put the
best Construction upon Words and Actions, and to forgive Injuries. Simplicity is a
direct, open, artless, undisguised, Behaviour.

Are S Gils [the Smith Girls] either Frank or fond, or even candid.—Not fond, not frank, not candid.

I am seated, to write you a most humble Petition for, what you have already repeatedly
promised to grant, the favour of a Letter. I have, in this Place, none to converse
with but the dead, and altho their Conversation is generally very entertaining and
instructive yet I find in my Heart, sometimes an Inclination to speak to the Living,
but as that Priviledge is denyed me, I would be satisfied with Writing to them, if
that could interceed for an Answer. For my own Part, I flatter my self sometimes,
that I have an uncommon share of Benevolence, sociability and friendship in my Composition,
since I feel the strongest Desire of talking and writing, to you and many others,
but upon a closer Reflection I find it is self at Bottom that hungers for the Instruction
that others can give. Your situation, in the most busy office, in the Center of one
of the best Libraries, and under the Instructions and Advice of one of the ablest
Masters in America, not to mention (least you should suspect me of Compliment) the
early youthful friendship between us, nor your happy Talents for such a Correspondence,
have made me wish most heartily for a constant Correspondence with you.

Cards, Fiddles, and Girls, are the objects of Sam. Cards, Fiddles and Girls. Kissing,
fidling and gaming. A flute, a Girl, and a Pack of Cards.

Note. I am liable [to] absence and Inattention, stupidity. I called at [Baldwins?] with J. Crosby and Mr. W[ . . . ] and left W. to pay for my Oats. [T. Lyde?] asked me for an Account. I took 3 or 4 [wrong?] Papers before I could find the [ . . . ]. [L.?] bid me open the [Door?], and I shut it.

Thatcher. Pownalls style is better than Shirleys. Shirley never promoted any Man for Merit
alone. If Satan himself were incarnate and { 110 } in Competition with Parson Wells for the Election, I would vote for old Harry. I cant
think that any Man of true good sense can be so vain, and fond of talking of himself
as Parson Wells. Tully was not a vain Man. The vainest Thing that ever he said was,
in his oration for Murena, that if they provoked him, he would profess himself a Lawyer
in 3 days. I wish my self a soldier. I look upon these private soldiers with their
Guns upon their shoulders, as superiour to me.

These are all wild, extravagant, loose Opinions and Expressions. He expresses himself
as madly as Coll. Chandler. Wild flights. He has not considered that these crude Thoughts
and wild Expressions are catched and treasured, as Proofs of his Character. He is
extreamly tender, and sensible of Pleasure and of Paine.

Kent is for fun, Drollery, Humour, flouts, Jeers, Contempt. He has an irregular immethodical
Head, but his Thoughts are often good and his Expressions happy.

Thatchers Passions are easily touched, his shame, his Compassions, his fear, his Anger,
&c.

Worthington.14 A Man may be in Duress as well by an Injury to his Estate as by a Restraint of his
Liberty, or by Menaces to his Person. I remember a Case in Sir John Stayer [Sir James Stair?] to this Purpose. A Man borrowed of his Neighbour £100 for 6 months, and gave him
a Pawn of twice that Value, for security. When the 6 months were expired, he offered
to pay the Money and the lawful Interest for it, and redeem his Pawn, but the Pawnee
refused to resign it, without £10 for the Interest of his £100 for the 6 months. The
Owner of the Pawn accordingly paid the £10, and redeemed his Pawn and afterwards brought
his Action against Pawnee, for the £10 he had paid him as Interest, and it was pleaded,
that he paid it voluntarily, and Volenti non fit Injuria, i.e. as he had paid it voluntarily,
he was not injured. But it was adjudged that he should recover, for he was under a
Constraint, a Necessity, in Point of Interest, i.e. in order to regain his Pawn, to
pay the ten Pounds, and therefore, it should be considered as extorted from him by
Duress.

Thatcher. The Speaker of the House of Commons in some former age, was impeached before the
House, of Bribery. And was obliged to sett in the Chair, and hear the whole Examination
of his own Conduct, and all the Debates of the Members upon it, till the House was
ready for a Vote, and then was obliged to put the Vote himself whether he { 111 } should be expelled the House? The poor Man earnestly prayed to be excused, but could
not, for while he was Speaker he alone could demand the Vote, which he did at last,
and it passed in the Affirmative.

Divorce. Is it for the Benefit of Society, for the Convenience and Happiness of human
Life, to allow of Divorces, in any Cases. I think it is. I think that either Adultery
or Impotence are sufficient Reasons of Divorce. But Quere, if Dissonance of Dispositions
is a sufficient Reason. This may be known, if sufficient Caution is taken beforehand.
But the others cannot. By Conversation with a Lady, and Tryals of her Temper, and
by Inquiry of her Acquaintance, a Man may know, whether her Temper will suit him or
not. But he can never know whether she will be fruitful or barren, continent or incontinent.

But would an unlimited Toleration of Divorces promote the multiplication of Mankind
or the happiness of Life.

Suppose every Man had a Power by Law, to repudiate his Wife and marry another at his
Pleasure. Would not such a Power produce confusion, and Misery? After a Man and Woman
had cohabited 7 years and had as many Children a seperation would be very inconvenient
and unhappy. If either retained all the Children the other would be deprived of the
Pleasure of educating, and seeing [them]. But if the Children were divided, each would want to see and provide for the others
half.

Fortune has burned Coll. Quincys House, and some of his Furniture.15 Fortune is a capricious Goddess. She diverts herself with Men. She bestows her favours
sometimes with very great Profusion on a Man, and within a few Years she strips him
even of Necessaries. Tis a fluctuating state. We are tossed on the Waves sometimes
to Heaven, and then sunk down to the Bottom. That House and Furniture clung and twined
round his Heart, and could not be torn away without tearing to the quick.

Is it possible to preserve a serene undisturbed Mind, thro such a fire, and the Consequences
of it.

There is in human Nature an attainable Magnanimity, which can see a valuable House,
full of furniture, consuming in flames, a Friend, a Child, a Wife, struggling in the
Agonies of Death, without a sigh, a Tear, or a painful sensation or Reflection. The
Felicis Animi immota Tranquilitas, the immovable Tranquility of a happy Mind, unmoved
by Perils of Water or of fire, unmoved by any Losses, Accidents, by Loss of Wealth,
of fame, of friends, &c. Happy Mind indeed. Cant a { 112 } Mind be called happy, unless its Tranquility, its Ease, its Rest, is immovable, invincible.

It is not at all surprizing, that the Coll. is more dejected than his Brother was,
for tho his Brothers Reduction was more compleat, yet the Coll’s was less expected.16 Ned was reduced to be worse than nothing. Josa. [Josiah] has a Competency left. But Josa.[’s] loss was entirely unforeseen, unexpected, and unprepared for. But Neds was, I presume,
familiarly known and considered, by him at least beforehand.

Edmund lost a son as suddenly as the Coll. lost his House. And he shew[ed] as much Anxiety too. He could not sleep, all night, after he heard of it. The Colls
Grief is more eloquent than Neds.

Dissappointments are Misery. If a Man takes Pride and Pleasure in a House, or in rich
furniture, or Cloathing, or in any Thing, how is it possible for him to be satisfied
when they are lost, destroyed, consumed.

Not to admire is all the Art I know, to make men happy and to keep them so. Coll.
admired his House, tis burned, he is unhappy, &c. They are burned. He is unhappy.

It is a natural, immutable Law that the Buyer ought not to take Advantage of the sellers
Necessity, to purchase at too low a Price. Suppose Money was very scarce, and a Man
was under a Necessity of procuring a £100 within 2 Hours to satisfy an Execution,
or else go to Goal. He has a Quantity of Goods worth £500 that he would sell. He finds
a Buyer who would give him £100 for them all, and no more. The poor Man is constrained
to sell £500s worth for £100. Here the seller is wronged, tho he sell [them?] voluntarily in one sense. Yet, the Injustice, that may be done by some Mens availing
them selves of their Neighbours Necessities, is not so Great as the Inconvenience
to Trade would be if all Contracts were to be void which were made upon insufficient
Considerations. But Q. What Damage to Trade, what Inconvenience, if all Contracts
made upon insufficient Considerations were void.

I made some observation[s] on Barbery Bushes, Shoe make [Sumach], Cater Pillars, &c.

Inquire the Properties of Isinglass, and of Carpenters Glew. How the 1st attracts
all the Pumice and Sediment in Cyder to the Bottom and the latter to the Top?

You regret your Loss. But why? Was you fond of seeing, or of thinking that others
saw and admired, so stately a Pile? Or was you pleased with viewing the convenient
and elegant Contrivance of the inside, and with shewing to others how neatly it was
finished. Is it the Pleasure of seeing, with your own Eyes, the Elegance, and Grandeur
of your House, or is it the Pleasure of imagining that others admired it and admired
or envyed you for it that you regrett the Loss of? Did you suppose that you was esteemed
and regarded for the Beauty and Conveniency of your House? Or are you mortified to
think that your Enemies will be gratified, at your Misfortune. If these are the sources
of your Grief, it is irrational, unmanly. For the Friendship, that is founded on your
figure and Estate, is not worth preserving, and the Man who can rejoice, at your Loss,
is not worth attention. But if you consider it as a punishment of your Vices and follies,
as a frown that is designed to arrouse your attention, to Things of a more permanent
Nature, you should not grieve, but rejoice, that the great Parent of the World has
thus corrected you for your good.

Figure, and shew, may indeed attract the Eyes, and Admiration of the Vulgar, but are
little very little regarded by wise Men. Is it not rational, noble, to dote of the
Pleasure of viewing a fine Horse, and being seen by others to ride such a one. A fine
Horse, a fine House, Riches, Learning, make People stare at me and talk about me,
and a mighty Boon this to be stared at, and talked of by People that I despize, and
all that I regard will love and Honor me for Acquisitions that I have Power to [make?] and which cant be torn from me. Wisdom and Virtue are not dependent on the Elements
of fire or Water, Air or Earth.

How should I bear Bob Pains Detraction? Should I be angry, and take Vengeance by scandalizing
him? or should I be easy, undisturbed, and praise him, as far as he is Praise worthy.
Return good for Evil. I should have been as well pleased if he had said I was a very
ingenious, promising young fellow, but as it is I am pretty easy.—I should not have
been sorry if you had called at our House.

Try her [Hannah Quincy’s] Prudence. See if you cant draw from { 114 } her saucy disrespectfull Expressions concerning her Mother in Law.—Was not you very
intimate with your Mother, when she was Bty. Waldron?—as intimate as you are with
N. Marsh. She assumes the Authority of the Step mother.—She wears more Airs of Reserve,
and Distance, and Superiority than your father.—She18 is elated with her Match.—She is not the most discreet Woman. She told the Behaviour
of the People, at the Tavern they were at in the Country about the Tea, before all
the Monatiquot officers, shoe string fellows that never use Tea and would use it as
[awkwardly?] as the Landlady did. That was quite imprudent [and] impopular. It was designed to divert and please, but it had a contrary Effect. It
made them all jealous and suspicious that they were remarked and laughed at as much
to the next Company. And her unguarded Expressions about Peoples being afraid, backward
to go near the fire, and about their Eating her Sweet meats, drinking their Brandy,
and stealing their [ . . . ] and Cloathing have given offence to many People.

These are Indiscretions, that some Women would have avoided.

H. was very imprudent, to endeavour to exasperate Mr. Cranch, for she is sensible,
that he knows a story to her Disadvantage, and she should remember that Love turned
to Hatred, is like the best Wine turned to Vinegar, the most acrid in the World. He
will seek Revenge. Arise black Vengeance from the hollow Hell is the language of Othello.
I expect to hear very soon that he has divulged that story.

By saying you have corresponded with Dr. Lincoln so long and by saying I can tell
you how J. Brackett carries your Letters to Captn. Hews’s, and leaves them there,
and takes Lincolns Letters to you, she judged, that J. Brackett had told me she held
a correspondence with Lincoln, and went to clearing herself. She declared and protested,
she never wrote a Line to him in her Life, excepting one Billet, relating to those
Reflections on Courtship and Marriage which she sent with that Book. So I got satisfied.

H. I dont know who has been plagued most, Mr. Cranch or I. I think I have as much Reason
to complain of being plagued as he.

Parson Wiberts Hints. I am not obliged to answer his Hints. I could see a good deal
of Passion mixed with his Raillery. This is bragging. She will drop such Hints, by
and by, that I am in Love with her, and will tell others, that she aint obliged to
take my meaning by my saying, { 115 } but let me explain my self, and then I shall receive a [ . . . ] Repulse. My Father gave me my Choice, left me at Liberty. I am not controuled nor
constrained. My own Pleasure and Inclinations are to be my Guide.

Suppose I should hear that J. Went[worth], [Dan.?] Lock, B. Crawford, Mr. Cranch was dead, what Sentiment would rise? A tender Grief,
sorrow, mourning. But should Hannah die, what sentiment? Should not I be more affected
with her Death than with Cranch’s? I cant say. But should my father or Mother die
or my Brothers, how should I feel? But the Deaths of Acquaintances, Relations, Friends,
are but one sort of sorrowful Events. Losses by Shipwreck, Bankruptcy, or fire, are
another sort. How should I bear a sudden Consumption [of] a fine Estate, by any such Accident? How should [I] bear acute Pain, or frequent sickness, or a lingering chronical Disorder? The latter
I have born, the former never tryed. Scorn Grief, and create Joy. Create, and maintain
out of your own Thoughts a constant Satisfaction of Mind, by considering the Littleness
of Grief, and the Magnanimity of Resignation.

Littleness of Mind alone can be grieved, and grumble at what it cannot help, and what
it would be foolish to help if it could.

An habit of Indolence, and Listlessness is growing very fast upon me.

I am unable to think patiently, for any Length of Time.

Secondat says, that a Man, in the State of Nature i.e. unimproved by Education or
Experience, would feel Nothing but his own Impotence and would tremble at the motion
of a Leaf, and fly from every Shadow.19

But Q.—What proof can be given of this Assertion? What Reason is there to think that
Timidity, rather than Confidence or Presumption, would hold the Ascendancy in him?
Is it not as reasonable to think he would be too bold, as too timorous, and engage
oak Trees, unwieldy Rocks, or wild Beasts, [&c.?] as that he would fly from every Shadow? The scarcity of Phenomena, make it impossible
to decide. There never was more than one or two Men found, at full Age, who had grown
up with the Beasts in the Woods and never seen a human Creature, and they were not
very critically observed. What does he mean by a Man in a State of Nature? Suppose
a Child, confined in a Room, and supplied with Necessaries, by some secret invisible
avenue, till 20 { 116 } year[s] old, without ever seeing a human Creature. That Man would be in a State of Nature,
i.e. unimproved by Experience and human Conversation. <Suppose, this Man at 20, brought from his Cell.> Suppose a Man of the same Age and size let into this poor fellows Cell. What would
be the Effect of the Meeting. Would the savage be frightened, or pleased. Surprized
he would be, but agreably, or disagreably. Would his fears make him fly, or his Curiosity
examine, or his Presumption assault the new object?

In a total Inexperience and Ignorance, how would human Passions operate? I cant say.
A Child, at its first Entrance upon the World, discovers no signs of Terror or Surprize
at the new scenes and objects, that lie around it, and if the Child is not terrified,
why should the Man be. The Child is pleased as soon as its Eyes are first opened with
bright and luminous objects, not frightened. It will smile not cry. Suppose then a
whole Army of Persons, trained up in this manner in single seperate Cells, brought
together, would they mutually dred and fly each other, or be pleased with the sight
of each other, and by consequence allured gradually to a more intimate Acquaintance
or would they fall together by the Ears for the Mastery as two Herds of strange Cattle
do? Would the State of Nature be a State of War or Peace? Two might meet, and be pleased
with each others looks, and fall to play, like two Lambs. Two others might meet, and
one might apply his Hands to the others Body and hurt him, and then both fall afighting
like 2 Dogs. So that both Friendship and Squabbles might be the Consequences of the
first Congress. But Passions work so differently in different men especially when
several of them are complicated together, and several, as Surprize, Joy, fear, Curiosity
would in this Case be combined, that we cant judge what the Consequences would be
in such an imaginary Congress.

Hobbes thinks, that Men like Cattle, if in a state of Nature, would mutually desire
and strive for the Mastery, and I think Secondat’s Argument from the Complexity of
the Idea of Dominion, is not a Refutation of Hobbes’s Hypothesis, for Cattle fight
for Dominion, and Men in the State of Nature may be supposed to have as clear an Idea
of Dominion as the Cattle have. The Laws received in a State of Nature i.e. before
the Establishment of society, are the Laws of Nature. How can man be considered out
of Society, before the Establishment of Society. We put possible imaginable Cases,
and then ask what would be the Effect. The Species cant subsist, without Society,
but an Individual may, as the wild Man found in a forrest, or a Child bred alone in
a Cell out of all Human sight. Now suppose 1000 such Individuals { 117 } should exist at once and all be collected and turned loose together in the same forrest.
What would succeed. Some squabbles, wild [staring?], and some plays, [sports?], Copulation would soon succeed.

[ . . . ] Lust of Dominion could not at first produce a War of all against all. They would
not feel any such Desire of ruling and subduing. They would soon feel hunger and thirst,
and desire of Copulation and Calf, and would endeavour to supply these Wants and gratify
these Desires, but would not yet conceive the Thought and Wish of governing all the
Rest. Peace, Nourishment, Copulation, and Society. Recur [to] this by all means, when I get into a thotless dissipated [Mood?], set down and write my self into [steady?] thinking.

Law is human Reason. It governs all the Inhabitants of the Earth; the political and
civil Laws of each Nation should be only the particular Cases, in which human Reason
is applied.

Let me attend to the Principle of Government. The Laws of Britain, should be adapted
to the Principle of the british Government, to the Climate of Britain, to the Soil,
to its situation, as an Island, and its Extent, to the manner of living of the Natives
as Merchants, Manufacturers and Husbandmen, to the Religion of the Inhabitants.

This is a succession in Capita. Suppose my father should die, and leave me and my
3 Brothers. In that Case The Inheritance, all my fathers Estate must be divided into
3 Parts. And if he had left 4 or 5 or 6 Children, his Estate must have been divided
into 4 or 5 or 6 Parts or shares. The Inheritance is to be divided according to the
Number of Heads, that are to succeed.

This is a succession in stirpes. Suppose I had a family and should die leaving 3 Children
and afterwards my father should die, leaving my two Brothers alive, in this Case my
3 Children must succeed to my fathers Estate in my stead and my fathers Inheritance
must be divided into 3 parts, one of which should be inherited by my three Children.
Here it is divided not according to the No. of Heads but according to the Number of
stocks, that spring from the common Root which is my father.

An alliance between the Emperor and the States to which England acceeded. England
and Holland obliged themselves to assist the House of Austria, in taking and keeping
Possession of the Spanish Monarchy, when ever Charles 2d should die without lawful
Heirs. France had { 118 } designs and Pretensions on the Spanish Monarchy. The 1st object of the grand alliance
was the Reduction of the Power of France; the 2d to secure the succession of Spain
to the H[ouse] of Austria. Charles 2d of Spain whose good Queen could not with all her [ . . . ].20 Right of succeeding would have been in the [Children?] of Maria Theresa, in [whom this?] Right was [ . . . ] by [ . . . ] 1657–1688.

Have been out of Humour, this Evening, more than I have been for some Weeks if not
Months. Reflection, thinking on a Girl, ill Health, Want of Business, &c., wrought
me by insensible degrees into a peevish Mood. I felt reduced to Necessities, needy,
poor, pennyless, empty Pockets. I have given away at least 10s. this day. Thus decayed
Merchants must preserve the Appearances of Affluence. But Poverty is infinitely less
deplorable to me than a nervous Languor of the Body. If I have good Digestion and
Spirits, I can bear with an easy Mind an empty Purse.

But I have been stupid, to the last Degree, in neglecting to spred my Acquaintance.
I have neglected Parson Robbins, Parson Tafte, and Parson Smith too. I have neglected
Dr. Tufts21 and Esqr. Niles, Eben Miller, Dr. Miller, and Edmund Quincy. Dr. Millers &c., Mr.
Allins, Mr. Borlands, Mrs. Apthorps, Edd. Quincies. I should aim at an Acquaintance.
Not to spend much Time at their Houses but to get their good Word. And behave with
Spirit too. I have hitherto behaved with too much Reserve to some and with too stiff
a face and air, and with a face and Air and Tone of Voice of pale Timidity. I should
look bold, speak with more Spirit. Should talk Divinity with P[arson] Tafte, and gain his Love or else extort his Admiration, or both. Make him love and
admire. I ought to hire, or wheedle or allure two or 3 in every Town, to trumpet my
Character abroad. But I have no Trumpets in Weighmouth, none in Skadin,22 none in Milton. Oh! what have I been about? I lay no schemes to raise my Character.
I lay no schemes to draw Business. I lay [no?] Schemes to extend my Acquaintance, with young fellows nor young Girls, with Men of
figure, Character nor fortune.23 Am content to live unknown, poor, with the lowest of all our species for Company.
This is the Tenor of my Conduct.

Lincoln. My father gave me a serious Lecture last Saturday night. He says I have waited on
H.Q. two Journeys, and have called and made Visits there so often, that her Relations
among others have said I am courting of her. And the Story has spread so wide now,
that, if I { 119 } dont marry her, she will be said to have Jockied me, or I to have Jockied her, and
he says the Girl shall not suffer. A story shall be spread, that she repelled me.

These are the Inconveniences of such Reports. When it has been generally talked and
believed that a young fellow is Courting a Girl, if they seperate, if they slacken
their Intimacy, the fault will be laid to one or the other—either he would not have
her or she would not have him. Oh Tittle Tattle!—subject of Tittle Tattle!

Lincoln. Dependance is, if Inequality is not, inconsistent with a lasting Friendship.

I.24 A Man cannot maintain, for any Length of Time, a Friendship with another on whom
he is dependant, for the Benefactor will expect Condescentions and verbal or other
Expressions of Gratitude, that the Receiver will not be always careful to pay.

The Benefactor may, through accident or Passion, or inadvertency, show that he is
conscious of the favours he confers, that he expects Submissions and Expressions of
Gratitude that the Receiver thro the same Imperfections may not be always careful
to perform, and hence Disgusts will arise on both sides. That a Friendship may subsist
between two Persons very unequal in Rank and fortune, may be true. Or between two
very unequal in Age or Character—as between Gridley and me. But a Friendship between
two of equal rank and fortune, of equal Age and Character, has the fairest Probability
to continue. But there will be one Tye, that of Gratitude, which ought to have great
Strength.

Put this Case. A Gentleman of great Experience and Character in the Profession of
the Law as Mr. Gridley, or in that of Physick as Dr. Hersey, may receive a young fellow,
just admitted to the Bar as me or just beginning the Practice of Physick as you, to
his Friendship. Their Age and Character demand from you and me Deference and Respect,
and Gratitude as well as Interest will prompt us to pay it. Yet why may not such a
Friendship subsist? Now why should a Dependance for Advice and Assistance in Practice
and in the Conduct of Life or for a good Character and Recommendation to the World,
be less destructive to friendship than a Dependance for the Necessities of Life, food
and Cloathing. There is however a Distinction between Patronage and Friendship. A
Patron may advise and assist his Pupil in Practice and may spred his Character with
great Advantage to the World, without receiving him to that Intimacy, Confidence,
Affection which I { 120 } distinguish by the Word friendship. It is not natural for old Men to contract intimate,
familiar friendships with young ones. For, Experience shows that human Nature is scarcely
capable at any Age of Constancy, sincerity, and Virtue enough for a very unreserved
friendship, but specially in youth, and young ones are not allured by freedoms and
friendly familiarities, to engage with old Men. Yet I cant see why a Man of sense
and sentiment too, as well as fortune, might not maintain the strictest friendship,
with another of the same Character, tho in very needy Circumstances and tho supported
and supplied by him, even with Necessaries. Genius and Virtue might be gratified and
improved on both sides. And Generosity, the satisfaction of making the Life of such
a friend easy, might be gratified on the Part of the Benefactor, and Gratitude, and
Interest on the Part of the Receiver would be ties enough to hold.

P[arson] Gay. Two Countrymen were disputing which did the most good, the Sun or the Moon. One
of them asserted that the Moon did the most because that shines in the Night, when
without that, we should be in absolute Darkness, but the Sun never shone till it was
broad day light, as light as Day. But the Sun never shone but in the day, when there
was no need of it.—Oh the stupidity, not to see that the sun was the Cause of the
day light without which those Hours that we now call the day would be as dark as the
Night without a moon.

Another—at some ordination, a certain Indian, who had never seen a public assembly
before, seated himself, in the Alley, very near the Deacon’s seat. He sat in Silence
with the rest, while the Priests were at Prayer, but when the Psalm was named, and
the Deacon rose up [to] set the Tune, he began to stare and grew angry at the Deacon, but when the Deacon
had read a Line and the whole Congregation broke out with him, the Indian grew quite
mad and rushing up to the Deacon, layed on upon him most unmercifully. ’Tis you says
he are the Cause of all this plaguey Rout.

Eunice Paine.25 Thunder and Lightning have a physical Effect upon me. I am always sick when it thunders.
My Mother had a Child that was born in the latter Part of the fall, it lived thro
the Winter and Spring, and when warm Weather came there was a violent storm of Thunder
and Lightning one afternoon. As soon as the Storm began the Child was thrown into
Convulsions. It twitched and trembled from Head to foot, its Nails and its face turned
black, and it continued so till the Storm was over, and then it recovered. Sometime
afterwards { 121 } another Thunder Gust happened and the Child was taken exactly in the same manner.
We sent for the Dr. but before he got there, the Thunder Cloud was blown over, and
the Child as well as ever.

What effluvia, what Physical Virtue, can a Cloud or Thunder or Lightning, diffuse
to the Earth that should convulse that Child, (or make Mrs. Eunice Vomit). An Imagination
prompted by Hystericks and by fear, might possibly occasion Mrs. Eunices sickness,
but not the Childs. No Habit of fear, no association of Terror, Horror with the Idea
of Lightning, had yet been formed in the Childs Mind. So that Either the sight of
the flashes of Lightning, which it is unlikely the Child saw, or the sound of the
Thunder, which the Child no Doubt heard, or else some unknown Effluvia emitted by
the Clouds, meeting with some peculiar Property in that Childs Constitution, was the
Occasion of its Convulsions.

E.P. My Brother says there is no such Thing as fancy distinct from Judgment. A Man may
prefer a Woman, or a Woman a Man, for some Property or Qualification, that he or she
may be unable to name. They may be unable to give a reason for their Choice. But [sentence unfinished]

Deacon Belcher. I have buried father and Mother, but I never felt, before, as I feel now. I am almost
overwhelmed.—The Deacon and his Wife too, were in [Trouble?]. The Pangs of her Grief were violent.— What a pleasant Child have I lost? What a
pleasant sister has Billy lost? The Loss of Moses was nothing to this. Oh how deceitful
is my Heart? I thought, If Moses had died at home and I could have followed him decently
to his Grave, it would have been an alleviation. But I find I was mistaken.

She was so full at the first sight of me, that she could not speak plainly. She sighs
and groans and weeps, most bitterly. The father and the mother with throbbing Hearts
bewail the Death of their only Daughter. These are Sensations that I never felt. I
can reflect on these sorrowful Events with great Serenity. I feel none of that Anguish,
which the Parent feels. But cant I fortify my Mind with Patience, with an entire Resignation
to the Dispensations of Heaven?

Make Preparation to bear Misfortunes. Prepare your Mind, furnish your Mind with Reflections,
Considerations, that will support you and mitigate your Grief.

1. This arbitrary date has been assigned to all of the entries that follow the sole dated
entry in D/JA/3, that of 29 June 1759, preceding.

4. The notes that follow are in part quotations or translations and in part paraphrases
of two works on civil law JA was studying, namely Wood’s New Institute of the Imperial or Civil Law (see bk. 3, ch. 9) and Johannes van Muyden’s Compendiosa institutionum Justiniana tractatio (see Titulus XXX, “Quibus Modis Tollitur Obligatio”). It has been necessary to resort
to the passages JA was abstracting in order to construct an even passably readable text of these notes,
because they were written in a highly abbreviated form and with little regard for
punctuation. Gaps in language and sense remain, and even those passages directly translated
from Latin are faulty. It is clear that the diarist’s mind was not on his books when
he made these memoranda, but was “roving from Girls to friends” and other matters
not closely related to law.

10. Sewall is doubtless David Sewall, a Harvard classmate of JA’s; he was at this time studying law in Portsmouth, N.H., and compiling a series of
almanacs published there; he later settled at York, Maine, and held important judicial
offices. Samuel Langdon (1723–1797), minister of the First Church in Portsmouth, became in 1774 the thirteenth president
of Harvard (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates, 10:508–528).

11. This entry may signalize JA’s first visit to the Smith household in Weymouth, where, before long, his initially
unfavorable impressions were reversed and his visits became frequent. In printing
this entry, which is nothing if not candid, the editors have tried to follow with
special care the diarist’s ambiguous punctuation and capitalization, leaving it to
readers to decide whether certain disapproving comments therein were intended for
Parson Smith or for others mentioned incidentally.

12. Mary Smith (1740–1811), who in 1762 married Richard Cranch; and her sister Abigail (1744–1818), who on 25 Oct. 1764 married JA. The allusions that follow are obscure. The Smith girls’ mother was a Quincy (Elizabeth,
daughter of Col. John Quincy).

13. No other version of this letter has been found. Quincy was presumably still in the
Boston office of Benjamin Prat, where he had studied for the bar.

14. John Worthington (1719–1800), Yale 1740, was a prominent lawyer in Springfield, Mass., prior to the Revolution; a loyalist,
he did not resume practice after the war (Dexter, Yale Graduates, 1:658–660).

15. This entry, together with the partial draft of a letter to Col. Josiah Quincy on the
same subject, below, was in all likelihood written earlier than the entries that immediately
precede them. Quincy’s house burned on 17 May 1759, and it is natural to suppose that
these reflections and the letter were written very soon thereafter.

16. Edmund Quincy’s Boston mercantile firm went into bankruptcy in 1757; the year before,
Quincy’s son Abraham had been drowned in Boston Harbor (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates, 7:109–110).

17. No other version of this remarkable letter has been found. It is apparently incomplete
and was quite possibly never sent.

18. The antecedent may be either Betsy (Waldron) Quincy or her stepdaughter Hannah Quincy
(whose “Match” could be her engagement to Bela Lincoln), but it is more likely the
former than the latter. The allusions that follow are too private to interpret, and
the passage was written so rapidly and carelessly that both words and meaning are
sometimes doubtful.

19. JA was reading Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws. (Secondat was the family name of the Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu.) His own
copy of this work was Nugent’s translation, “Second Edition corrected and considerably improved,” London,
1752; 2 vols. This copy is now in the possession of Mrs. Arthur Adams, Charles River Village,
Mass., and has in its margins what JA (in his Diary entry for 26 June 1760) calls “a sort of Index to every Paragraph” in JA’s hand, though it has no additional remarks or commentary. The passage on which JA is commenting is in bk. 1, ch. 2, “Of the Laws of Nature”: “Man in a state of nature
… would feel nothing in himself at first but impotency and weakness; his fears and
apprehensions would be excessive; as appears from instances … of savages found in
forests, trembling at the motion of a leaf, and flying from every shadow” (1:5).

Since in the entry for 26 June 1760JA says that he has “begun to read the Spirit of Laws,” one might conjecture that the
present entry is badly out of place; but it is more likely that he sampled the book
in 1759 and began a year or so later to read it “in order and with Attention,” compiling
a marginal digest as he did so.

20. Three or four words illegible. The rest of the entry is only semilegible.

21. Cotton Tufts, a Weymouth physician. He had married Lucy, daughter of Col. John Quincy, and was
thus an uncle by marriage of AA.

22. A local and now forgotten name, often spelled Scadding, for the South Precinct of
Braintree, later incorporated as the town of Randolph (Pattee, Old Braintree and Quincy, p. 56). Moses Taft’s meetinghouse was in the South Precinct.

23. This sentence contains words rubbed out and is obviously faulty as JA left it.

24. This reading is somewhat conjectural, since the initial “I” was inserted between the
lines and is not clear beyond question. There is no paragraph break in the MS, but there is a heavy dash preceding this initial. Thus Lincoln may have spoken the next several sentences, but if that is so, JA failed to indicate in the next paragraph just where he himself began elaborating
the same theme in rejoinder to Lincoln.

25. Eunice Paine, sister of Robert Treat Paine; a frequent visitor in the Cranch-Palmer circle at
Germantown. Richard Cranch had courted her in 1753, but her father opposed the match
and she never married. See Ralph Davol, Two Men of Taunton, Taunton, 1912, ch. 10, where some of her correspondence is published; also entry of 1 Feb. 1763, below.

The true End, which we ought to have in View, is that praeclarum ac Singulare quiddam,
which follows here.

Tis impossible to employ with full Advantage the Forces of our own minds, in study,
in Council or in Argument, without examining with great Attention and Exactness, all
our mental Faculties, in all their Operations, as explained by Writers on the human
Understanding, and as exerted by Geometricians.

Tis impossible to judge with much Præcision of the true Motives and Qualities of human
Actions, or of the Propriety of Rules contrived to govern them, without considering
with like Attention, all the Passions, Appetites, Affections in Nature from which
they flow. An intimate Knowledge therefore of the intellectual and moral World is
the sole foundation on which a stable structure of Knowledge can be erected.

And the structure of british Laws, is composed of such a vast and various Collection
of materials, taken partly from Saxony, Normandy and Denmark, partly from Greece and
Rome, and partly from the cannon and feudal Law, that, ’tis impossible for any Builder
to comprehend the whole vast Design, and see what is well and what [ill] contrived or jointed, without Acquainting himself with Saxon, Danish, Norman [as] well as Greek and Roman History, with civil, [feu]dal and Cannon Law.

[Be]sides all this, tis impossible to avail our selves of the genuine Powers of Eloquence,
without examining in their Elements and first Principles, the Force and Harmony of
Numbers, as employed by the Poets and orators of ancient and modern times, and without
considering the natural Powers of Imagination, and the Disposition of Mankind to Metaphor
and figure, which will require the Knowledge of the true Principles of Grammar, and
Rhetoric, and of the best classical Authors.

Now to what higher object, to what greater Character, can any Mortal aspire, than
to be possessed of all this Knowledge, well digested, and ready at Command, to assist
the feeble and Friendless, to discountenance the haughty and lawless, to procure Redress
of Wrongs, the Advancement of Right, to assert and maintain Liberty and Virtue, to
discourage and abolish Tyranny and Vice.

1. First entry in booklet “No. 4”; as numbered by CFA (our D/JA/4); CFA noted on the paper cover that the contents had been “copied” and “compared” (collated).
D/JA/4 contains only a handful of scattered entries, nearly all relative to JA’s studies and reading, from 12 Oct. 1759 to 21 Nov. 1772; all but the first two and
the last were written in 1760–1761.

No other version of the present letter to Sewall, the draft of which is obviously
incomplete, has been found. The earliest letter known to survive in the correspondence
between the two young lawyers is that of Sewall to JA, 29 Sept. 1759 (Adams Papers; partly printed in JA, Works, 2:80, note), but from internal evidence it is clear that the correspondence began
earlier.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0004-0009-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1759

1759.

Began Octr. 12th, in Pursuance of the foregoing Plan to transcribe from Brightlands
english Grammar, Answer’s to Mr. Gridleys Questions for that Grammar.

I have begun too, to compare Dr. Cowells Institutes of the Laws of England, with Justinians
Institutes of the Laws of Rome, Title by Title, that each may reflect Light upon the
other, and that I may advance my Knowledge of civil and common Law at the same Time.1

1. There are no more entries in D/JA/4 until 14 Nov. 1760, and very little in the form of correspondence or other papers survives to fill the
gap between the { 125 } present entry and that of 26 May 1760, from a different MS booklet, which follows.

Spent the Evening at Mr. Edd. Quincy’s, with Mr. Wibird, and my Cozen Zab. Mr. Quincy
told a remarkable Instance of Mr. Ben. Franklin’s Activity, and Resolution, to improve
the Productions of his own Country, for from that source it must have sprang, or else
from an unheard of Stretch of Benevolence to a stranger. Mr. Franklin, happening upon
a Visit to his Germantown Friends, to be at Mr. Wibirts Meeting, was asked, after
Meeting in the afternoon, to drink Tea, at Mr. Quincys. The Conversation turned upon
the Qualities of American soils, and the Different Commodities raised in these Provinces.
Among the rest, Mr. Franklin mentioned, that the Rhenish Grape Vines had been introduced,
into Pensylvania, and that some had been lately planted in Phyladelphia, and succeeded
very well. Mr. Quincy said, upon it, I wish I could get some into my Garden. I doubt
not they would do very well in this Province. Mr. Franklin replied, Sir if I can supply
you with some of the Cuttings, I shall be glad to. Quincy thanked him and said, I
dont know but some time or other I shall presume to trouble you. And so the Conversation
passed off. Within a few Weeks Mr. Quincy was surprised with a Letter from some of
Franklins friends in Boston, that a Bundle of these Rhenish slips were ready for him.
These came by Water. Well, soon afterwards he had another Message that another Parcell
of slips were left for him by the Post. The next Time Mr. Franklin was in Boston Mr.
Quincy waited on him to thank him for his slips, but I am sorry Sir to give you so
much Trouble. Oh Sir, says Franklin the Trouble is nothing Sir, to me, if the Vines
do but succeed in your Province. However I was obliged to take more Pains than I expected
when I saw you. I had been told, that the Vines were in the City but I found none
and was obliged to send up to a Village 70 miles from the City for them. Thus he took
the Trouble to hunt over the City, and not finding Vines there, he sends 70 miles
into the Country, and then sends one Bundle by Water, and least they should miscarry
another by Land, to a Gentleman whom he owed nothing, and was but little acquainted
with, purely for the sake of Doing Good in the World by Propagating the Rhenish Wines
thro these Provinces. And Mr. Quincy has some of them now growing in his Garden. This
is an Instance too of his amazing Capacity for Business. His Memory and Resolution.
Amidst so much Business as Counsellor, Post Master, Printer, so many private studies,
and so many { 126 } | view Publick Avocations too, to remember such a transient Hint and exert himself, so in
answer to it, is surprising.2

This Rhenish Wine is made of a Grape that grows in Germany upon the River Rhine and
from which it receives its Name, and is very famous, all over Europe. Let me remember
to look in Chambers, under Rhenish and in Salmons Geography, under the Produce of
the Countries upon the Rhine, for more Particulars of this Vine and Grape, and Wine.
The soil it delights in, the Method of Cultivation, what digging, what Manure, what
Pruning &c. Let me ask Mr. Quincy, whether the soil of his Garden suits them? and
what sorts and how many [sorts?]3 of Grapes he has? Dont they require more Heat than we have for them? Where he got
his other slips. Where he got his Lime Trees? &c.

1. First entry in “Paper book No. 5” (D/JA/5). This booklet, an assemblage of stitched
gatherings from which the threads have now largely worn away, contains somewhat irregular
entries from 26 May to 25 Nov. 1760.

2. In an interesting letter to Edmund Quincy from London, 10 Dec. 1761, Franklin touched
on the subject of American viniculture. This letter, lacking part of its text, was
found among the Adams Papers and was printed by CFA in a footnote to the present Diary entry (JA, Works, 2:82). It is now in MHi:Misc. Bound MSS.

Tuesday [27 May].

At home. Read, in Naval Trade and Commerce.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0001-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-05-28

Wednesday [28 May].

Loitered the forenoon away upon this Question in Arithmetic. 3 men give 20 shillings
for a Bushell of Corn. A pays in the Proportion of one half, B in the Proportion of
1/3 and C in the Proportion of 1/4. Now how many shillings and Pence does each one
pay? I put x, an Algebraicall Expression, for that unknown Quantity, whose 1/2 1/3
and 1/4 added together would make 20 shillings.

In the afternoon, Zab and I wandered down to Germantown on foot—running a Parrallell
between the Pleasures, Profits, freedoms, Ease and Uses of the several Professions,
especially Physick and Divinity.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0001-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-05-29

1760. May 29. Thurdsday.

Rose and breakfasted. Have done nothing yet to day, and God only knows what I shall
do. The Question of the Pipe. A Pipe of Wine has 3 Cocks, one of which would discharge
it in 1/4 of an hour, another in 1/2 an hour and the 3rd in 3/4 of an hour all open
and running at once. Quere in what Time, all three together will empty the Cask? Let
me Note these Proportions for the Present.

Perhaps this may turn out right.

I must run over Fractions again, vulgar and Decimal, as well as algebraical, and now
and then, a few Questions in Fenning and Hammond, and Ward, or else I shall totally
forget my Numbers. I find that the Art of numbering depends upon Practice, and in
a short disuse, they will slip from the Memory. A Journal, scrawled with Algebraical
signs, and interspersed with Questions of Law, Husbandry, natural History &c., will
be a useful Thing. The Principal Uses however will be to correct my style, and assist
my Memory, give me a true Compunction for the Waste of Time, and urge me of Course
to a better Improvement of it. Besides Writing is one of the greatest Pleasures, and
it sooner rouses my ambition, warms my Imagination, and fixes me in { 128 } a train of thinking, than any other Thing that I can do—than sitting still with my
Eyes shut, or than holding a Book to read.

Mem. Last Sunday after Meeting Mr. Cranch explained to us at Dr. Tufts’s, the Machines
that are used in the Mines of Coal in New Castle, and of Tin, in Cornwal, to convey
up Water from the Bottom of the Mine. They go upon the Principles of elastic Air and
rarefyed Vapour. They have hollow Globes of plated Iron, or of Copper, which will
hold some Barrells, which they heat with great fires and have Tubes, and Cocks, and
can cast up great Quantities of Water, many H[ogshea] ds in a minute. But I have forgot the Construction of the Machines, as well as the
Method of Working them. Here is my failing or one of my failings. My Attention has
not been keen enough, to understand and fix in my Memory the Explications of many
of these Machines. Etter explained to me, his stocking Looms, but I could not when
I left him, have run from the first Motion to the compleat formation of a stocking.
I did not see thro it. Cranch once explained to me, the Machine that draws Water from
the Thames, into the Canals under the City of London, and that sends Water up into
their Garretts, Chambers, Rooms and Cellars, so that by Opening a Cock you may draw
a Pail of Water from the Thames, in any House in the City almost, but I do not remember
the Construction of it. Let me remember to enquire of him about the Construction of
these 2, that for Water from the Thames, and that for Water from the Thames [thus in MS] and that for Water from the Mines, and to go once more to see the stocking Loom.

Few things I believe have deviated so far from the first Design of their Institution,
are so fruitful of destructive Evils or so needful of a speedy Regulation, as Licensed
Houses. The Accomodation of Strangers, and perhaps of Town Inhabitants on public occasions,
are the only warrantable Intentions of a Tavern and the supply of the Neighbourhood
with necessary Liquors, in small Quantities <to be consumed at home> and at the cheapest Rates, are the only excusable Designs of a Retailer; and that
these Purposes may be effected, it is necessary, that both should be selected from
the most virtuous, and wealthy People who will accept the Trust, and so few of each
should be erected, that the Profits may enable them to make the best Provision, at
a moderate Price. But at the present Day, such Houses are become the eternal Haunt,
of loose disorderly People of the same Town, which renders them offensive and unfit
for the Entertainment of a Traveller of the least delicacy; and, it seems that Poverty,
and distressed Circum• { 129 } stances are become the strongest Argument, to procure an Approbation, and for this
[these?] assigned Reasons, such Multitudes have been lately licensed, that none can afford
to make Provision, for any but the trifling, nasty vicious Crew, that most frequent
them. The Consequences of these Abuses are obvious. Young People are tempted to waste
their Time and Money, and to acquire habits of Intemperance and Idleness that we often
see reduce many of them to Beggary, and Vice, and lead some of them at last to Prisons
and the Gallows. The Reputation of our County is ruined among Strangers who are apt
to infer the Character of a Place from that of the Taverns and the People they see
there. But the worst Effect of all, and which ought to make every Man who has the
least sense of his Priviledges tremble, these Houses are become in many Places the
Nurseries of our Legislators;— An Artful Man, who has neither sense nor sentiment
may by gaining a little sway among the Rabble of a Town, multiply Taverns and Dram
Shops and thereby secure the Votes of Taverner and Retailer and of all, and the Multiplication
of Taverns will make many who may be induced by Phlip and Rum to Vote for any Man
whatever.

I dare not presume to point out any Method, to suppress or Restrain these increasing
Evils; but I think for these Reasons it would be well worth the Attention of our Legislature,
to confine the Number of, and retrieve the Character of Licensed Houses; least, that
Impiety, and Prophaneness, that abandoned Intemperance, and Prodigality; that Impudence
and brawling Temper, which these abominable Nurseries daily propagate, should arise
at length to a degree of strength, that even the Legislature will not be able to controul.

The foregoing draft of an essay on the evils of licensed houses is the first of a
series on this topic found in JA’s Diary during 1760–1761. They were doubtless intended for publication, but none
has been found in the papers of the day. During this same period JA also drew the rough sketch map showing the locations of a dozen or more taverns in Braintree and Weymouth that is
reproduced as an illustration in the present volume.

On 18 May 1761, as a direct result of JA’s intensive but short-lived temperance campaign, the town of Braintree passed the
following votes:

“Voted, That although Licensed Houses so far as they are conveniently scituated well
accommodated and under due Regulation for the Releif and Entertainment of Travellers
and Strangers may be a usefull Institution, Yet there is Reason to apprehend that
the present prevailing Depravity of Manners through the Land in General and in this
Town in particular and the shamefull neglect { 130 } of Religious and Civil Duties, so highly offensive in the sight of God, and injurious
to the peace and Welfare of Society are in a great measure owing to the unnecessary
increase of Licensed Houses.

“Voted, That for the future there be no Persons in this Town, Licensd for retailing
spiritous Liquors and that there be three persons only approbated by the Selectmen
as Inn-holders, suitably situated, one in each Precinct.

“Voted, That the Persons that are approbated as Inn-holders for the ensuing year oblidge
themselves by written Instruments under their Hands and Seals to retail spiritous
Liquors to the Town Inhabitants as they shall have occasion therefor, at the same
price by the Gallon or smaller Quantity as the same are usually sold by Retail in
the Town of Boston and upon the performance of the above conditions, there be no Person
or Persons approbated by the Selectmen as Retailers.

“Voted, That the Town now proceed by written votes to the choice of the Persons and
places they think most conveniently scituated and best Qualifyd, for the purposes
aforesaid. . . . Mr. Samll. Bass Junr. was chosen for the North Precinct, Mr. Benjamin
Hayden for the Middle and Mr. Jonathan Wales for the South.

“Voted, That there be a Com[mi]ttee appointed to draw up and present a Humble Memo[randum]
to the Justices of the Q[uarter] sessions to be holden at Boston on the first Tuesday
of July next, praying that the present proceedings of the Town Respecting Licensd.
Houses meet with their approbation, and that an authenticated copy of the votes of
the Town be annexed thereto and Presented therewith.” (Joseph Crosby, Josiah Quincy,
and Samuel Niles were named the members of this committee. Braintree Town Records p. 378–379.)

In his old age JA confessed that his youthful crusade had been a complete failure: “I only acquired
the Reputation of a Hypocrite and an ambitious Demagogue by it; the Number of licensed
Houses was soon reinstated. Drams Grog and Sotting were not diminished, and remain
to this day as deplorable as ever. You may as well preach to the Indians Against Rum
as to our People” (letter to Benjamin Rush, 28 Aug. 1811, CtY). JA’s difficulties in keeping his farm hands sober confirm this gloomy conclusion; see
entries of 13, 18, 21 July 1796, below.

On the general subject of intemperance in early New England see CFA2, Three Episodes, 2:783 ff., where it is pointed out that JA elsewhere admitted that gatherings and discussions in the rural taverns were important
stimuli to the Revolutionary movement.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0001-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-05-30

May 30 1760. Friday.

Rose early. Several Country Towns, within my observation, have at least a Dozen Taverns
and Retailers. Here The Time, the Money, the Health and the Modesty, of most that
are young and of many old, are wasted; here Diseases, vicious Habits, Bastards and
Legislators, are frequently begotten.

Nightingale, Hayden, Saunders, J. Spear, N. Spear, Benoni Spear, would vote for any
Man for a little Phlip, or a Dram. N. Belcher, John Spear, O. Gay, James Brackett,
John Mills, Wm. Veasey &c. voted for T. for other Reasons.1

1. On 19 May 1760 Capt. Ebenezer Thayer Jr. was elected representative to the General
Court, replacing Samuel Niles (Braintree Town Records, p. 372).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0001-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-05-31

1760 May 31th. Saturday

Read in naval Trade and Commerce, concerning Factors, Consuls, { 131 } Embassadors, &c., and the South Sea Company, &c. [Went?] into Water. Talked with Wm. Veasey about Church &c. He will not allow that Dr. Mayhew
has any uncommon Parts. He had haughty Spirits, and Vanity &c.—How the Judgment is
darkened and perverted by Party Passions!

Drank Tea with Zab. Ran over the past Passages of my Life. Little Boats, water mills,
wind mills, whirly Giggs, Birds Eggs, Bows and Arrows, Guns, singing, pricking Tunes,
Girls &c. Ignorance of Parents, Masters Cleverly, Marsh, Tutors Mayhew &c. By a constant
Dissipation among Amuzements, in my Childhood, and by the Ignorance of my Instructors,
in the more advanced years of my Youth, my Mind has laid uncultivated so that at 25,
I am obliged to study Horace and Homer.—Proh Dolor!

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-01

June 1st. Sunday.

Read 2 Odes in Horace. Spent the Evening at the Coll’s. While we were at supper, the
Coll. received Letters from Mr. Turner of London, with a Bill of Lading and Invoice
of about £150 sterlings worth of Glass and Hinges and Nails, and Locks &c. for a House.
These were the Value of a sum of the Coll’s. Money, which Mr. Turner had retained,
in his own Hands, about seven Years since, to satisfy a Debt from Mr. Branden, whom
the Coll. had so strongly recommended, as in Mr. Turners opinion to make himself Brandens
sponsor. So that it was as sudden and unexpected at least as [a] Prize in the Lottery would have been, or one taken at sea; and it had such a joyful
Effect.

Coll. Grape vines delight in a rockey, and mountainous soil, like our Commons, which would
make excellent Vineyards.—I suppose that most of the Wines of the World, are the Growth
of Climates at least as northern as ours. Champaign, and Tockay are more southward,
but Burgundy &c. &c. &c. are northward of us.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-02

June 2d. Monday.

Wasted the Day, with a Magazine in my Hand. As it was Artillery Election, it seemed
absurd to study, and I had no Conveniencies, or Companions for Pleasure either in
Walking, riding, drinking, husling, or any thing else.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-03

June 3rd. Tuesday.

This Day has been lost in much the same, Spiritless manner.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-04

June 4th. Wednesday.

Read nothing but Magazines as indeed an indisposition rendered me unfit for any Application.
Discharged my Venom to Billy Veasey, against the Multitude, Poverty, ill Government,
and ill Effects of licensed Houses, and the timorous Temper, as well as criminal Designs
of the Select Men, who grant them Approbations. Then Spent the Evening, with Zab,
at Mr. Wibirts.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-05

June 5th. Thurdsday.

Arose late. Feel disordered. 8 o’Clock, 3 1/2 Hours after Sun rise, is a sluggard’s
rising Time. Tis a stupid Waste of so much Time. Tis getting an Habit hard to conquer,
and Tis very hurtful to ones Health. 3 1/2, 1/7 of the 24, is thus spiritlessly dozed
away. God grant me an Attention to remark, and a Resolution to pursue every Opportunity,
for the Improvement of my Mind, and to save, with the Parsimony of a Miser, every
moment of my Time.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-06

June 1760. Friday 6th. June.

Arose very late. A cold, rainy northeasterly storm, of several Days continuance. I
have an ugly Cold, a phlegmatic stomach and a Cholicky Pain in my Bowells this morning.
Read Timon of Athens, the Man hater, in the Evening at the Drs.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0007

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-07

Saturday. 7th.

Arose late, again. When shall I shake off the shackells of morning slumbers, and arise
with the sun? Between sun rise, and Breackfast, I might write, or read, or contemplate,
a good deal. I might, before Breakfast, entirely shake off the Drowziness of the Morning,
and get my Thoughts into a steady Train, my Imagination raised, my Ambition inflamed,
in short every Thing within me and without, into a Preparation for Improvement.—I
have some Points [of] Law to examine to day.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0008

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-08

Sunday, 8th.

Spent the Evening and Night at the Coll’s. in ill natured, invidious, Remarks upon
Eb. Thayer, and Morals and General Court &c.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0009

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-09

Monday. 9th.

Attended Major Crosbeys Court. Where Capts. Thayer and Hollis made their Appearance.
Thayer had taken 2 Accounts of Nathan { 133 } Spear, in his own Hand Writing, and got the Writts drawn by Niles. But upon my making
a Defence for Hunt, Spear was afraid to enter and so agreed to pay Costs and drop.
But poor Thayer had to say, several Times I told him so, but he would have his own
Way. This little dirty, petty fogging Trade, Thayer carries on yet.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0010

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-10

Tuesday [10 June].

Altho my Spirits were wasted Yesterday, by sitting so late the Night before, (till
one o’Clock I believe) and rising so early Yesterday morning, (by sun rise) and walking
in the dewy Grass and damp Air, home to my fathers and then down to Major Crosbeys,
yet the Thought of being employed, and of opposing Captn. Thayer and punishing Nathan
Spear, and Spreading a Reputation, roused my Faculties, and rolled out Thoughts and
Expressions, with a strenth and Rapidity, that I never expected. I remember something
of the same sort, when I first waited on Mr. Gridley. The Awe of his Presence, a Desire
of his Esteem, and of an Introduction to Practice, quickened my Attention and Memory,
and sharpened my Penetration. In short, I never shall shine, till some animating Occasion
calls forth all my Powers. I find that the Mind must be agitated with some Passion,
either Love, fear, Hope, &c. before she will do her best.

I rambled this Afternoon with the Dr. over the Commons, and amused my self by clearing
the Spring and climbing the Ledges of Rocks, thro the Apertures of which, large Trees
had grown. But I spend too much Time, in these Walks, these amusing Rambles. I should
be more confined to my Chamber. Should read and muse more. Running to Dr., to the
Barn, down to meals and for Pipes and Coals and Tobacco &c. take up much of my Time.
I have grown habitually indolent and thoughtless. I have scarcely felt a glow, a Pang,
a Transport of Ambition, since I left Worcester, since I left my school indeed, for
there the Mischievous Tricks, the perpetual invincible Prate, and the stupid Dulness
of my scholars, roused my Passions, and with them my Views and Impatience of Ambition.
Let me Remember to keep my Chamber, not run Abroad. My Books, naval Trade, Coke, Andrews,
Locke, Homer, not Fields and Groves and Springs and Rocks should be the Objects of
my Attention. Law and not Poetry, is to be the Business of my Life.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0011

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-14

Saturday [14 June].

This Week has been spent in Business, i.e. filling Writts, and { 134 } Journeys to Boston, Scadding, Weighmouth, Abington. The other Night Cranch explained,
to Zab and me, the Fire Engine, with which they throw up Water from the Bottoms of
their Tin Mines in Cornwall, and Coal Mines in New: Castle. They have a large Cauldron
of Plated Iron, filled with Water, and closely covered, and placed over a large Fire.
Out of one side of this Cauldron, proceeds a large Tube of Iron horizontally, which
Ends in a capacious iron receiver, shaped like an Egg, which will hold a Tun. Half
Way between the Cauldron and the Receiver, in the Tube is a Cock. From the Lower Side
of the Receiver perpendicularly goes another Tube, down into the Well or Bottom of
the Mine, i.e. into the Water. At the mouth of this Tube, where it communicates with
the Receiver is a Valve. From the Top of the same Receiver, perpendicularly upwards
goes another Tube, which extends quite up above the surface of the Ground, and at
the bottom of this Tube i.e. where it communicates with the Receiver, is another Valve.
This is the Description of the Machine. Now when the Water in the Cauldron is made
to boil, it sends a hot steem along, thro the Cock which is first opened for that
Purpose in the Receiver, which proceeds from the Receiver thro one Valve down to the
Water and thro another Valve, up into open Air. By this steem the Air, within, is
very soon rarified, so as to be no Ballance for the Pressure of the Air, upon the
Water in the Mine without the Tube. Of Course the Water rises and fills the Receiver.
Then turn the Cock and stop the Passage of the Steem, and the Water beginning to descend
will close down the lower Valve. The Vapour thus confined in the Cauldron by the Cock,
and the Water confined in the Receiver by the Lower Cock, as soon as you open the
Cock, the furious Vapour flies out and drives before it, all the Water in the Receiver,
thro the upper Valve, quite up into open Day, where they have channells &c. to convey
it away. And when this Proscess is once compleated, they begin anew. This Engine was
an Invention of Capt. Savery. They used Copper originally, but lately, they use plated
Iron.

They have a different manner now. They use 2 Concentric Tubes, with a Box, like a
Pump Box playing in the central one.

In my Journey to Abbington, my Mind seemed to be confused with the Dust and Heat,
and fatigue. I had not Spirit and Attention to make any Observations upon the Lands,
Corn, Grass, Grain, Fences, orchards, Houses &c. I dined at Nortons where the two
military Companies of the Town, were assembled to raise Voluntiers, Recruits, but
I had not Spirits to make Observations, on the Landlord, or Lady, or Officers or soldiers
or House, or any Thing. I eat Milk for Breakfast.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0012

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-15

1760. June 15th. Sunday.

Rose early, 5 o clock. A pleasant Morning. The more I write the better. Writing is
a most useful improving Exercise. Yesterday morning before Break fast I wrought my
Mind into a Course of Thinking, by my Pen, which I should not have fallen into the
whole day without it; and indeed not resuming my Pen after Breakfast, I insensibly
lost my attention.

Let me Aim at Perspicuity, and Correctness more than ornament, in these Papers.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0013

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-16

Monday. June 16th.

Arose before the sun. Now I am ignorant of my Future Fortune, what Business, what
Reputation, I may get, which is now far from my Expectations. How many Actions shall
I secure this Day? What new Client shall I have? I found at Evening, I had secured
6 Actions, but not one new Client, that I know of.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0014

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-17

Tuesday. June 17th.

Arose before the sun again. This is the last day.1 What, and who to day? Ebenezer Hayden was altogether new and unexpected. Hollis him
self was altogether new and unexpected and John Hayward was altogether new and unexpected.
3 entirely new Clients, all from Captn. Thayers own Parish, and one of whom is himself
a Pretender to the Practice, are a considerable Acquisition. I believe, by the Writ
and Advice I gave Hayden and the Writt and Advice and the Lecture, concerning Idleness
and Petty fogging, given Hollis before Hayward will spread me. Hollis is very near
to Beggary and Imprisonment. His oxen are attached, and his Cows, and Pew, and a Number
of Writts, and Executions are [out] against [him and] not yet extended. He owes more than his Estate can pay I believe. And I told him
that by neglecting his own proper Business, and meddling with Law which he did not
understand, he had ruined himself. And it is true, for if he had diligently followed
his Trade of making shoes and lived prudently he might at this Day have been clear
of Debt and worth an handsome Estate. But shomaking I suppose was too mean and dimi[nu]tive an Occupation for Mr. Thomas Hollis, as Wig making was to Mr. Nat Green, or House
Building to Mr. Daniel Willard, and he like them in order to rise in the World procured
Deputations from the Sheriff, and after serving long enough in that office to gett
a few Copies of common { 136 } Writts and a most litigious Disposition, left the Sheriff and commenced the Writt
Drawer. But poor Hollis is like to be stripped of all he has, if he should escape
the Goal, which Daniel Willard was obliged to enter, and if he should not be forced
to fly like Nat Green. These sudden Transitions from shomaking, Wigg making and House
building, to the Deputy Sheriffwick; and from thence to the Practice of Law, commonly
hurry Men rapidly to Destruction to Beggary and Goals. Yet Coll. White has rose the
same Way, i.e. by a Deputation from the Sheriff. But White had the Advantage of a
liberal Education, and had as Rival no Competitor to oppose him, so that he got quickly
sworn. E. Taylor too, was naturally smart, and had been long a sheriff, and had the
Patronage and Encouragement of Mr. Trowbridge, who was his Brother in Law. Applin
and Ruggles are in a higher Class, men of Genius and great Resolution, to combat the
World both by Violence and stratagem.

Thayer by his own abject slavery to Coll. Pollard got his Affection and he did every
Thing to encourage him. Dana has given him great Numbers of Writts to be served on
People in this Town, he takes seven shillings for the Writt, and four shillings always,
and some [times] 5 for the service; of this he gives Dana one shilling for his Blank, and reserves
10 or 11 to himself; great Numbers of Writts he has filled himself, and those which
he durst not fill he got Niles to fill for 3 shillings so that he takes 3, and four
is seven and often times Eight shillings to himself. Thus from Coll. Pollard, from
Mr. Dana and Elisha Niles he has got his Estate, as his Legislative Authority, as
basely got as Bestia’s from the Throne. A little longer Experience will enable me
to trace out the whole system of his Policy and iniquity.

The office of a sheriff, has Dangers and Temptations around it. Most of them decline,
in Morals or Estate or both. Saml. Penniman is one.

1. For entering actions for the July sitting of the Suffolk Inferior Court.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0015

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-18

1760 June 18th.

Read but little, thought but little, for the N.E. storm unstrung me.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0016

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-19

Thurdsday June 19.

I have been the longer in the Arg[umen]t of this Cause not for the Importance of the Cause itself, for in itself it is infinitely
little and contemptible, but for the Importance of its Consequences.1 These dirty and ridiculous Litigations have been multiplied in this Town, { 137 } till the very Earth groans and the stones cry out. The Town is become infamous for
them throughout the County. I have absolutely heard it used as a Proverb in several
Parts of the Province, “as litigious as Braintree.” And this Multiplicity is owing
to the Multiplicity of Petty foggers among whom Captn. Hollis is one, who has given
out that he is a sworn Attorney till 9/10 of this Town really believe it. But I take
this Opportunity, publickly to confront him, and undeceive the Town. He knows in his
Conscience that he never took the Oath of an Attorney, and that he dare not assume
the Impudence to ask to be admitted. He knows that the Notion of his being a sworn
Attorney is an Imposture, is an Imposition upon this Town. And I take this opportunity
publickly to declare that I will take all legal Advantages, against every Action brought
by him or by Captn. Thayer or by any other Petty fogger in this Town. For I am determined
if I live in this Town to break up this scene of strife, Vexation and Immorality.
(Such suits as this and most others that ever I have seen before a Justice in this
Town, have a Tendency to vex and imbitter the Minds of the People, to propagate an
idle, brawling, wrangling Temper, in short such suits are an Inlet to all manner of
Evils.)

And some [i.e. one] of these suit managers, when I first came to this Town, hearing that I had been thro
a regular Course of study with a regular Practitioner, and that I was recommended
to the Court in Boston, by one of the greatest Lawyers in America, concluded, that
I should be enabled by these Advantages, and prompted by my own Interest if by no
higher Motive, to put an End to the illegal Course of dirty, quacking Practice in
this Town, which he had been in, and thereby enslaved the Minds and Bodyes and Estates
of his Neighbours. And to prevent this he set himself to work to destroy my Reputation
and prevent my getting Business, by such stratagems as no honest Mind can think of
without Horror, such stratagems as I always will resent, and never will forgive till
he has made Attonement by his future Repentance and Reformation. I thank God his Malice
has been defeated, he has not been able to enslave me, nor to drive me out of Town,
but Peoples Eyes begin to open, and I hope they will open wider and wider till they
can see like other Towns. Happy shall I be if I can rescue the Souls and Bodies, and
Estates of this Town from that Thraldom and slavery, to which these Petty foggers
have contributed to depress them; and if I can revive in them a generous Love of Liberty
and sense of Honour.—After this long Digression your Honour will let me return to
this Cause, and I rely upon it, it is a vexatious one. I rely upon it that many of
these Articles were borrowed and not bought, { 138 } and that therefore this Action cant be maintained for them. I rely upon it, that the
Affair of the Hat is a litigious Thing, that it was a mere piece of Tavern Amuzement,
and if there was any Thing like Bargain and sale in it, the Bargain was completed,
the Hat delivered and the Money paid, and with regard to the other Articles, we have
filed an Account that more than ballances them, and therefore I pray your Honours
Judgment for Costs.

1. This entry is obviously a draft of JA’s argument, or the closing portion thereof, in the case of Lt. White and the hat.
In the very next entry JA redrafted his argument in order to avoid so egotistical a tone.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0017

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-20

Friday June 20th.

I must not say so much about my self, nor so much about Hollis and Thayer by Name.
I may declaim against Strife, and a litigious Spirit, and about the dirty Dablers
in the Law.

I have a very good Regard for Lt. White, but he must allow me to have a much greater
Veneration for the Law. To see the Forms and Processes of Law and Justice thus prostituted,
(I must say prostituted) to revenge an imaginary Indignity, offered in a Tavern over
a Chereful Bowl or enlivening Mug. To have a mere Piece of Jocular Amuzement, thus
hitched into an Action at Law, a mere frolick converted into a Law suit, is a Degree
of meanness that deserves no Mercy and shall have none from me. I don’t think Lt.
White considered the Nature and the Consequences of this Action, before he brought
it. If he had he never would have brot it. He has too much Honour to have brot it.
But I suppose the Case was this. Lt. White was a little chagrined, that my Client
had for once outwitted him, and in a Miff, or a Bravado, I say a Miff or a Bravado,
sees Hollis and asks his Opinion. And Hollis glad of an opportunity to draw a Writ,
instantly encourages the suit, and the suit was brot. And when once brot, it was too
late to repent. But I dare say he has been severely sorry, that he ever brot it, and
will have still further Occasion to be sorry before it Ends.

As to the Hat, Either it was a Bargain and Sale or it was not. If it was a Bargain
and sale, The Hat is my Clients and the Price agreed upon, which was the Copper, delivered
at the very Time, is Lt. Whites. But if it was not a Contract, but only a frolick
and no one in Earnest, as I suppose it was, then the Property of the Hat continues
in Lt. White, and he is welcome to take it, returning us our Copper.

Rode to Germantown in the morning. Cranch says that the Grindstone is found in the
Coal Mines in Europe. The Coal lies in Apart• { 139 } ments, strongly fortified with Partitions of this stone, and this stone forms the
Covering over Head, &c. I took Notice of the Rock Weed, they were burning into Kelp
and I find there are a great Variety of Species of it. Some of it grows out of the
Rock, a small stalk, which soon spreads into several Brainches, and each of those
Branches into several others, with those little Bubbles or Bladders, full of Air,
scattered along at little Distances, on every Branch and Sprig, but at the End of
Each twigg or Sprig, hangs a large Pod, full of seed incased in a spongy substance.
We went down to some large stones, which had been thrown over between high Water and
low water mark 2 or 3 Years ago. These stones are all grown over with the Rock Weed.
The seed, We suppose is deposited by the Water upon the Rock, takes Root and grows.
It grows very fast to the Rock and when you pull, you will sometimes break the stalk,
sometimes pull off a flake of the Rock with it, and sometimes take the Weed, as it
seems to me, fairly up by the roots, and the Roots are little fine Spiculae, finer
than the Point of the finest Needle. These Roots insert themselves into the Pores
of the Rock and thence draw Nourishment. And the connoiseurs say, that some Rocks
will produce Weeds, large and rank and strong, while others, laid in the same Place
at the same time, will produce only a meagre, short, lingering one. They seem to take
a deeper and stronger Root, in Timber and Planks, as on the sides of Wharfes, than
they do in Rocks. The salt Water seems to be impregnated with the seeds of it, for
whenever a Rock is thrown below high Water mark, immediately a Crop of these Weeds
Spring up. It is excellent Manure for the Soil. The salts and sulphurs in it are very
good. When they thro it into the Kelp Kiln, it is of a dark brown, or a dirty Yellow,
but after it has been heated in the Kiln, it turns of a bright clear green. The Fire
occasions some Change in the Configuration of the surface, that reflects green Rays
most plentifully, where it used to reflect yellow and brown. They burn it into an
ashes, which is a fixed salt, which they call Kelp. 20 Tons of the Weeds will produce
about one Ton of the ashes. It tastes a little like Gun powder, it smells like marsh
Mud, like a muddy Creak, &c. It has a saltish, sulphurous Taste and Smell. —The Deacon
shewed us a Sort of Stone, that the old Glass Company brought from Connecticut, to
use instead of Grindstone, for the furnace.1 He called it stone of the asbestus Kind. Dr. Eliot2 used it in his [] and never found the fire made any Impression on it. But the Glass men found it dissolved
in about 4 months. They call it a Cotten stone. It seems to have no Gritt at all,
it feels as soft as soap. It cost the Company about [ . . . ] or £900.—Thus, the first Es• { 140 } says, generally rude, and unsuccessful, prove burdensome instead of profitable.

1. Deacon Joseph Palmer, later called General Palmer, conducted with his brother-in-law Richard Cranch various
business enterprises, including a glass manufactory in the Germantown section of Braintree
(DAB, under Palmer; Pattee, Old Braintree and Quincy, p. 473–492).

June 21st. 1760. Saturday.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0019

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-23

June 23rd. 1760. Monday.

A long obstinate Tryal, before Majr. Crosby, of the most litigious, vexatious suit,
I think that ever I heard. Such Disputes begin with ill humour and scurrilous language,
and End in a Boxing Bout or a Law suit.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0020

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-24

Tuesday. 24th. June.

Arose early, a very beautiful Morning. Zab. seems to make insufficient Distinctions
between the Vowells. He seems to swallow his own Voice. He neither sounds the Vowells
nor Articulates distinctly. The story of Yesterdays Tryal, spreads. Salisbury told
my Uncle and my Uncle told Coll. Quincy. They say I was saucy, that I whipped the
old Major, &c., that I ripped about the Law suits of this Town And of that House,
and that I reminded the Majer of his oath to be of Council to neither Party, and to
do Justice equally between the Parties according to Law.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0021

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-25

Wednesday [25 June].

Went out with the Coll., in his Canoe, after Tom Codd. Rowed down, in a still calm,
and smooth Water, to Rainsford Island, round which we fished in several Places, but
had no Bites. Then we went up the Island, and round the Hill. Upon the North Easterly
side of the Hill, or Island, is a prodigious Bank or Head, which is perpetually washing
away, with Rains and Tides. Heartley says it has been washed away 10 feet since he
lived on the Island. The Rocks all round the Island are covered with long, rank, rich
Weeds, 3 Years old, which Heartley sells at 5s. a Load.1

At one of the Clock we took our Mutton and Cyder, under the shade of a fine Tree,
and laid our Provisions on a large flat stone which answered for Table, Dish and Plate,
and then we dined expecting with { 141 } much Pleasure an easy sail Home before the Wind, which then bread2 fresh at East. After Diner we boarded and hoisted sail, and sailed very pleasantly
a Mile, when the Wind died away into a Clock Calm and left us to row against the Tide,
and presently against the Wind too for that sprung up at south, right a Head of us,
and blew afresh. This was hard work. Doubtful what Course to steer, whether to Nut
Island, or to Half Moon,3 or to Hangmans Island or to Sunken Island, Coll. Q. grew sick which determined us
to go ashore at Hangmans for that was the nearest. As soon as he set foot on shore
he vomited, very heartily, and then weak and faignt, and spiritless, he crawled up
to the Gunning House, and wrapping his great Coat round him, lay down on the sea weed
and slept, while I rambled round the Island after Weeds and flowers and stones and
young Gulls and Gulls Eggs. 500 Gulls I suppose hovered cawing and screaming over
the Island, for fear of their Eggs and Young ones, all the time we were there. When
the Coll. awoke and found himself strengthened and inspirited, we rowed away, under
Half Moon, and then hoisted sail and run home. So much for the Day of Pleasure, The
fishing frolick, the Water frolick. We had none of the Pleasure of Angling, very little
of the Pleasure of Sailing. We had much of the fatigue of Rowing, and some of the
Vexation of Disappointment. However the Exercise and the Air and smell of salt Water
is wholesome.

1. This entire entry was omitted by CFA in editing JA’s Diary, perhaps because, though it records a characteristic incident, it shows Col.
Josiah Quincy in a momentarily undignified posture. The course of the fishing expedition
among the islands of Boston Harbor and Quincy Bay may be traced on the map in Shurtleff, Description of Boston, facing p. 518. Hangman or Hangman’s Island is about midway between Squantum and
Hough’s Neck, in shoal water some two miles northeast of the mouth of Black’s Creek
in present Quincy. Rainsford Island, about two miles farther northeast, had been in
use by the town of Boston for quarantine and hospital purposes since 1737 (same, p.
523–525). For present-day details see U.S. Geological Survey map of Hull, Mass.

2. That is, “bred”? But possibly an end-of-line contraction for “breathed.”

3. Half Moon Island, now submerged except at low tide, formed a half-circle in the flats
just off the mouth of Black’s Creek. It faced what was called Mount Wollaston Farm,
the estate of Col. John Quincy and his son Norton, AA’s uncle. After Norton Quincy’s death in 1801, Mount Wollaston Farm came into the
possession of the Adamses, partly by bequest and partly by purchase. A few years later
the title to the island came into dispute because it had long been used by fishing
and hunting parties from the neighboring towns. Thereupon JA wrote an historical and legal memorandum that provides an engaging account of Half
Moon Island as he had known it since boyhood. This undated memorandum is in the Adams Papers under the assigned date of 1806. On 7 April 1806 a Quincy town meeting voted “To
dismiss the article respecting fishing and fowling on half-moon, viz.:—'To know if
the town will maintain their right and priviledge, according to old custom, in fishing
and fowling on half-moon, and if any inhabitant should be prosecuted on that account,
that the town, as a town, { 142 } would defend the prosecution’” (Pattee, Old Braintree and Quincy, p. 98). Search of the (unpublished) Quincy Town Records reveals nothing more on this subject.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0002-0022

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-06-26

1760. June 26. Thurdsday.

Feel indifferently well after my yesterdays walk and sail. I have begun to read the
Spirit of Laws, and have resolved to read that Work, thro, in order and with Attention.
I have hit upon a Project that will secure my Attention to it, which is to write in
the Margin, a sort of Index to every Paragraph.1

June 27th. Friday.

Read 100 Pages in the Spirit of Laws. Rambled away to a fine Spring in my Cozen Adam’s
Land, which gushes thro a Crack in a large flat Rock and gurgles down in a pretty
Rill. The Water is clear, sweet, and cool, and is supposed to have a very wholsome
Quality, because it issues from a Mountain, and runs towards the North. What Physical
Quality its northern Direction may give it, I know not. By its sweetness it flows
thro clean Earth, and not minerals. Its Coolness may be owing to its Rise from the
Bowells of the Hill.

Zab’s Mind is taken up with Arithmetical and Geometrical Problems, Questions, Paradoxes
and Riddles. He studies these Things that he may be able to gratify his Vanity by
puzzling all the vain Pretenders, to Expertness in Numbers, and that he may be too
expert, to be puzzled by any such Questions from others.

There is a set of People, whose Glory, Pride &c. it is to puzzle every Man they meet,
with some Question in the Rule of three or fractions, or some other Branch of Arithmetic.
Jed. Bass. Moses French. Tom Peniman, &c. &c. Smith, Richard Thayer, &c.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0003-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-07-01

Tuesday. July 1st. 1760.

Went to Town.

Mr. Thatcher. You have read a great deal, Mr. Adams, in the Roman History, concerning the Modesty
of Youth, and their Veneration of the Elders. Now I think these young Gentlemen had
very little of that Modesty and Veneration, when they went in the face of Law and
against the Remonstrances of all the Elders to act their Plays.

Mr. Otis says there is no Limitation of Attachments. There is no Proportion established
between the Demand and the Quantity to be attached, so that a Villain may attach 20,000£
if he pleases as se• { 143 } curity for £20, and take the whole into the Officers Custody. Tho on second thought,
this cant be done without Collusion between the Plaintiff and the officer, for unless
the officer is malicious as well as the Plaintiff, he will run the Risque for the
Defendant, of making a Common Service, and this is the Reason why there has been no
Mischief made of the unlimited Power of Attachment.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0003-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-07-03

Thurdsday July 3rd. 1760.

Read pretty diligently in the Spirit of Laws.—Hayden’s Consultation suggested the
following Questions. Q. Is there any Method of compelling a Grantor to give a new
Deed when the Deed he has executed before happens to be burned or lost?—Q. May an
Agreement in Writing without seal, or by Parol only be given in Evidence against a
Bond sealed and delivered? After Confession of the Forfeiture of the Penalty, any
Special Agreement may be given in Evidence.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0003-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-07-05

1760. Saturday July 5th.

Last Night Cranch explained to me, the Water Works in the River Thames which convey
water, all round the City of London. There is first, a long water Wheel, like the
Water Wheel of some saw Mills, which is carried round by the River. On the End of
the Axis of this water Wheell are Coggs, which carry round a cogg Wheel. This Cogg
wheel has upon the End of its Axis, a Number of Cranks and each of these Cranks lifts
up and lets down a Pump Box every Time the Cogg wheel Turns. These Pumps are very
large, and prodigious Quantities of Water are pumped away into a general Conveyance
and Receiver, from which Pipes are carried to almost every Cellar and to many of the
Rooms, and Chambers, and Garrotts, in Gentlemens Houses, thro the City. Cranch says
he has seen the Works for Conveying ships up a Cataract, as that between Topsham and
Exeter. Vessells are conveyed along, up Hill, so 3 Miles. They rise up hill as far
as from the Bottom of the long Wharf to the Top of Bacon [Beacon] Hill. They have Walls of great Thickness and strength built across the River Ex,
with Gates, of Timber fortified with Irons, in the Middle. These Gates are opened,
and the Vessells float, within the Wall. The gates are then shut, and the fresh running
Water of the River let down into that Apartment where the Vessell is which soon raises
the Vessell as high as the Top of the lower Walls when the Gates of the second Wall
are opened and the Vessell is floated within that. Then the second Gate is shut, and
the freshit raises the Vessell up another stair.— { 144 } These Gates have several smaller sluice Gates in them that slide up and down. These
they slide up, and let out as much Water as they can, before they pretend to open
the Great Gates.

This whole Passage and Conveyance is artificial, for the natural Course of the River
was at some Distance. This whole Channell was cut by Art. What an Expence! to cutt
such a Channell for 3 miles, to erect such and so many Walls across the River, to
build such Gates, and such Machines to open them.

Invention has laid under Discouragements in England, for Inventions to facilitate
any Manufacture, by which Numbers of People might be thrown out of Business have been
prohibited by Act of Parliament. Saw Mills for that Reason were prohibited, That a
greater No. of Hands might be employed in sawing, by Hand, Boards and Timber &c. But
that Act was of no service. Our Merchants could send to Holland and buy Boards and
all sorts of Timber much cheaper, than they could procure them at home. I suppose
the Act is expired, and not to be revived, by the Encouragement the society for Encouraging
Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, have offered to the Man who shall produce the best
Modell of a saw Mill.1

The Dutch erected a Dike, some Years since, which shut out the sea for a great Extent
of Land, and they erected Wind Mills, at small Distances upon this Dike, which threw
all the Water that was left within, over the Dike into the Sea.

Deacon Palmer’s Glass Furnace, it seems is a reverberating Furnace. That is, the Heat,
which is flashed against the internal surface of the Furnace, when a dry stick of
Wood is thrown in, is reverberated, down into the Pots, and melts the Glass, much
more than the silent Heat below. So that, rugged Excrescences, prominent Bits of Grindstone,
within must be a disadvantage, for if the internal Concave could be polished like
a concave Mirror, it would be in its most perfect state. Besides this Furnace is too
high. These 2 faults, Hight and internal Ruggedness, the Deacon thinks have wasted
him almost a Cord of Wood a Day.

Cowen2 and Young Thayer the Marketman are full of White and Bowditch. Cowen heard I tore
Whites account all to Pieces, and Thayer thought that White had a dirty Case. Few
Justices Causes have been more famous, than that. Isaac Tyrrell [Tirrell] had the story too, but he thought Bowditch was to blame, was abusive.

1. This paragraph, and possibly the next as well, may have been intended as direct discourse
by Cranch.

2. A common name in Weymouth in JA’s time; often spelled Cowing in contemporary records.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0003-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-07-06

July 6th. Sunday.

Heard Mr. Mayhew of Martha’s Vineyard.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0003-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-07-09

July 9th. Wednesday.

Gould has got the story of White and Bowditch.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0003-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-07-12

Date: 1760-07-19

Saturday [12 or 19 July].

I find upon Examination, that a Warrant of Attorney given by an Infant is void; so
that, if you intend during your Apprentices Absence, to put the Note you mentioned
to me in suit, or to sue for the Detention of the Province Note, or any other wise
to prosecute your Right, the only Way I can think of is, for the Lad to elect your
father for his Guardian and see to procure the Judge of Probates allowance of it,
before he goes off.1<If your father is unwilling to go to Town, you may ride down and wait on this Judge.> Altho Deacon Bass might have been appointed Guardian to him when a Child, yet you
know he has a Right to choose one at fourteen, and he is no doubt willing to choose
his Master, but he must give security to the Judge for the faithful Discharge of his
Trust.

From the very hasty and imperfect Account of the Case which you gave me, I can think
of no other Way at Present, that will have any Safety. So you may Act your own Pleasure.

With Regard to the Notes, as the old Note you mentioned to me, was given to the Lad
an Infant, neither He nor his Guardian will be under any Obligation to accept it in
Satisfaction for the Province Note, unless they please. So that if that Note is not
sufficient to secure the Money, you may bring your Action for the Detention of the
Province Note. But in that Case you know you must be able to prove by Witnesses, Confession,
or other Circumstances, first that your Apprentice owed the Note, 2dly that French
had it in Possession, and 3dly that he converted it to his own Use.

If these Hints are of any service to you, I shall be glad, or if, upon your letting
me further into the facts, any Thing further should occur to me, I shall be ready
to communicate it.

[salute] Yr. svt.,

[signed] J. Adams

1. CFA omitted this draft of a letter to an applicant for legal advice and all of JA’s legal notes that follow in July and August.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0003-0007

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-07-13

Date: 1760-07-20

Sunday Morning [13 or 20] July 1760.

The week before last Salome Pope appeared before Coll. Quincy, to confess herself
with Child, by Jos. Ryford.

Her Intention was to complain against Jos. Ryford and charge him before the Justice
with being the father of the Bastard Child with which she is now pregnant. Now what
Occasion for taking her Examination upon Oath?—By the Province Law.1

1. Here a line is drawn across the page in the MS and a short entry follows which has been scratched out with two different pens: “Ryford
is not only suspected but has been charged to have begotten a Bastard Child; therefore
Q. may [now himself perhaps?] bind him to the sessions, But is not [ . . . ] to do it by the Province Law.”

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0003-0008

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-07-25

Fryday July 25th.

We contend that the Plaintiffs ought to recover nothing on this Bond, because according
to the original Agreement it is paid.1 The Case was this. The Plaintiffs about 15 years ago conveyed to one Tower, a Tract
of Land, containing with such and such Boundaries, 30 Acres. And the present Defendants
became jointly bound with the Grantee for the Money, which was £750, for which they
gave 8 or 10 Bonds, one of which was to be paid off every Year. But at the Time of
these Transactions, a suspicion arose, that the Land included within the mentioned
Bounds, did not contain so much as 30 Acres, which induced the Defendants to insist
upon and the Plaintiffs to enter into an Agreement which they committed to Writing,
that the Land should be surveyed, and if it fell short of 30 Acres, the Deficiency
should be deducted out of these Bonds. Accordingly an Admeasurement was made, and
the Land fell short 7 Acres and 1/2, which in Proportion to the Price of the whole
amounted to about the Value of this Bond. With regard to the other Bonds some of them
were put in suit, others were paid off and taken up, at length all of them were taken
up, but this, and the Reason why this was never taken up was this. The Plaintiff Hollis
who had kept all the Bonds in his own Hands never would come to a final settlement
with them. The Grantee had made several Payments, and Tower had made several more
and Hayden had made several others. Some of these Payments were minuted on the Bonds,
but many of them were made abroad upon Hollis Promise to enter them on the Bonds when
he went home which was never done, so that these People being Brothers to Hollis and
confiding in his Honor have been let [led] on Blindfold, in midnight Darkness, till they have already paid 12 or 1500 Pounds
for 750, and when all is done they have no Land. For by some Accident the Deed of
this Land is lost, of which Hollis got scent some way or other and has since conveyed
away this very Land to another Man. This very land is now mortgaged to Mr. G[oldthwai]t.2

The Case of Chambers vs. Bowles was this. Capt. Chambers had sold to one Anthony Lopez
a Spaniard of Monto Christo, a Quantity of Merchandizes. Lopez called for the Goods,
but when he came to count his Money he found it fell short, 60 Dollars. Chambers,
who had no other Dealings with Lopez and was unacquainted with his Circumstances,
refused to trust him for the 60 Dollars, and accordingly took back Merchandizes, to
that Value. Upon this Captn. Bowles, who was well acquainted with the Spaniard, and
knew him to be rich, spoke a few Words to him in Spanish and then turning to Captn.
Chambers, said, let Lopez have the goods and I will pay you the Dollars; call upon
me tomorrow or any time and Ile pay you the Money.

Mr. Otis said this fell within the Province Law to prevent frauds and Perjuries “that
no Action shall be brought whereby to charge the Defendant upon any Special Promise
to answer for the Debt, Default or Miscarriages of another Person, unless the Agreement
upon which such Action shall be brought, or some Memorandum or Note thereof shall
be in Writing, and signed by the Party to be charged therewith,” &c. This is, says
he, an Agreement to answer for the Debt or Default or Miscarriage of Lopez. The Contract
and sale was from Chambers to the Spaniard, not from Chambers to Bowles. No Discrimination
was made between the Merchandizes sold to Lopez and these sold to Bowles, but Bowles
says let Lopez have the Goods according to your Contract and I will see you paid if
he dont.

Thatcher. This is not a conditional Undertaking for Another, but an absolute Undertaking for
himself.

I remember a Case in Salkeld precisely parrallel which is this. “A and B go into a
Warehouse together and A says to the Merchant, deliver B such and such Merchandizes,
and if he dont pay you I will. This Promise is void by the Act of Parliament from
which our Province Law was copied. But if A says Let B have such and such Goods and
I will be your Pay master, or I will see you paid, or I will be answerable to you,
in this Case A’s promise is good, is an absolute Undertaking for himself not a conditional
Undertaking for Another, and A shall be answerable.—Just so in the Case at Bar. Captn.
Bowles says, Let the Spaniard have the Goods and I will pay you, call tomorrow or
any time at my Lodgings and I will pay you. Here is an Absolute Undertaking for himself,
not a Conditional Undertaking in Case Lopez failed, for We never sold these Goods
to Lopez, we have no Demand vs. Lopez for them, we refused to sell them to him: We
sold them to Bowles, he sold them to Lopez; He only can demand pay of Lopez and we
can demand pay only of him; and we expect your Verdict accordingly.— { 148 } This was like Fairbanks v. Brown. There Brown Undertook for the [Govt.?], that the Carter should have such a Price. I will ensure You such a Price. I promise
you such a Price, &c.

The Jury gave a Verdict for Chambers in this Case.

1. This entry is a draft of an argument in which JA was defending Hayden and others against the rapacity of Thomas Hollis, the shoemaker,
tavern-keeper, and writ-drawer of Braintree Middle Precinct. The suit was evidently
tried in the Suffolk Inferior Court, since Ezekiel Goldthwait, who held the mortgage
on the land in question, is mentioned as “Clerk of this Court.”

2. The name is a scrawl in the MS, but is clarified in the entry of next day, which contains another version of JA’s argument.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0003-0009

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-07-26

1760. July 26.

This Bond has been at [least] once and an half, if not twice, paid. The Case is this. About 15 Years ago, the Plaintiffs
sold a tract [of] Land, containing 30 Acres, within such and such Boundaries, to one Tower, for 750£,
and He together with the present Defendants became jointly bound to the Plaintiffs,
in 10 different Bonds, of which this is one, for the Payment of the Money. But in
the Time of it, a suspicion arose that those Bounds did not include 30 Acres; and
least they should not an Agreement was made and committed to Writing, that the Land
should be surveyed, and if it was found to fall short the Deficiency should be deducted
from some of these Bonds. Accordingly the Land was afterwards surveyed, and found
to fall short, 7 Acres and an half, which in Proportion to the Price of the whole
amounted to about the Value of this Bond. All the other Bonds have been discharged
and taken up, and this was set against the Deficiency of Land. But Besides all this,
at least one half of it has been paid another Way. For one of these Obligers carried
the Money to Hollis and had 1/2 of what was due upon every Bond in his Hands callculated,
and paid him down his Money, and Hollis promised to indorse one half, upon every Bond
that was left: yet this has never been indorsed; and Hollis has assurance enough to
sue for this whole Bond. The Defendants have been extreemely careless, and negligent.
Sometimes they paid Money abroad, and took no Receipts, but relied on his Honour to
indorse it when he went home. They even left the Agreement that obliged him to make
up the wanting Land, in Hollis’s own Hands; after the Land was surveyed they left
the Plan and survey in his Hands, in short there has been the Utmost Simplicity and
Inattention on their Part in every Part of all these Transactions; and there have
not been fewer Proofs of Artifice, secresy, and Guile, I must say Guile, on the Part
of Hollis, for He always avoided giving Receipts; { 149 } he never would suffer any 3d Person to be present, when he did Business. They sometimes
would carry with them a Neighbour [who]1 understood Numbers, better than they, to calculate for them and see that they were
not injured, but whenever they did so Hollis would never do any Business with them
and at last had the Assurance to tell them that he never would do any Business with
them if they brought any Body with them, as long as he lived. So that by one Artifice
and another we have been led on to pay, I suppose, £1500 for 750, and what is worse
than all the rest, the Deed he gave is accidentally lost. Of this Hollis got a Hint,
and has since sold it to another Person. This Hollis has mortgaged this very Land
to Mr. Gouldthwat, the Clerk of this Court, since he found We had lost our Deed. Yet
he has the assurance to sue this [Bond?]. We have offered him to relinquish his obligation to make good the deficient Land
and pay him the 1/2 of this Bond, if he will execute a new Deed of the Land; but he
cant do that. He has sold it.

August 3d. 1760.

Hollis has appealed. If he prosecutes his Appeal, he shall be paid. I believe there
never was an Action in this Court where more Instances of Ignorance, Negligence and
Inattention appeared on one side, and of Artifice, Secresy and Guile I must say Guile
on the other, since it was erected. Let me draw a Picture of the Defendants stupidity,
and of Plaintiffs Knavery. Neglect to acknowledge the Deed, to record it. Then the
Loss of it, intrusting the Agreement that obliged him to allow the wanting of Land
on these Bonds, in Hollis’s own hands; then leaving the survey, in Hollis’s Hands.
Paying him sums of Money abroad, and confiding in his Honour to indorse them—and consenting
to do Business with him alone. On the other side Hollis has been watchful to draw
every Tittle of evidence within his own Power. I dare not say he has the Deed of the
Land but he has got the Agreement, and he has the survey and he has been careful never
to receive money of us before Witness when he could help it, and he never would give
any Receipts. He would promise to indorse upon the Bond but he never did it. Nay he
had the assurance to tell us at last, that he never would do any Business with us
again, if we brought any 3d Person with us. We thought ourselves ill used several
Times. We were ignorant of Numbers and Calculations, can but just write our Names,
and we had a Desire that somebody better skilled than we should calculate { 150 } and settle for us. Accordingly we got once or twice some of our Neighbours, to go
with us And see that we want1 defrauded. But he never would do any Business with us, and at last he told them to
their Heads, if you ever bring Deacon Penniman, or any other Man with you again when
you come to settle with me, I’le go directly off and leave you and will do nothing
with you.

I must explain and prove Towers Payment of one half, at large, and then Haydens Payment
of £270, and a Book Debt, and the Indorsements which made the 6 Bonds that Hayden
took up.

1760. Aug. 9th.

Drank Tea at Coll. Quincys, with Coll. Gooch and Dr. Gardiner. I see Gooch’s fiery
Spirit, his unguarded Temper. He Swears freely, boldly. He is a Widower, and delights
to dwell, in his Conversation, upon Courtship and Marriage. Has a violent aversion
to long Courtship. He’s a fool, that spends more than a Week, &c. A malignant Witt.
A fiery, fierce outragious Enemy. He quarrells with all Men. He quarrelled with Coll.
Quincy, and intrigued to dispossess him of his Regiment, by means of Dr. Miller and
Mr. Apthorp.1 He now quarrells with Coll. Miller and Dr. Miller and Eb. Thayer. He curses all Governors.
Pownal was a servant, Doorkeeper, Pimp to Ld. Hallifax, and he contracted with Ld.
Hallifax to give him 15s. out of every Pound of his salary. So that Pownal had 25
pr. Cent Commissions, for his Agency, under Ld. Hallifax.

Thersites in Homer, was,

Aw’d by no shame, by no respect controuled

In scandal busy, in Reproaches bold:

With witty Malice studious to defame

Scorn all his Joy and Laughter all his Aim.

But chief he gloried with licentious style

To lash the Great and Monarchs to revile.

Thus we see that Gooches lived, as long ago as the siege of Troy.

Spleen to Mankind his envyous Heart possesst

And much he hated all, but most the best.

Long had he liv’d the scorn of every Greek

Vext when he spoke, yet still they heard him speak.

His daughters have the same fiery Temper; the same witty malice. They have all, to
speak decently, very smart Tempers, quick, sharp, and keen.

An Insinuation, of Mr. Pownals giving 3/4 of his salary for his Commission.—This is
with licentious style Governors to revile.—Coll. Miller can serve the Devil with as
much Cunning, as any Man I know of, but for no other Purpose is he fit.—This is in
scandal busy, in Reproaches bold.

Gardiner has a thin Grashopper Voice, and an affected Squeak; a meager Visage, and
an awkward, unnatural Complaisance: He is fribble.2

Q[uery]. Is this a generous Practice to perpetuate the Shruggs of Witt and the Grimaces of
Affectation?

1. Long afterward JA wrote a detailed account of the method by which Joseph Gooch displaced John Quincy
of Mount Wollaston as colonel of the Suffolk militia in 1742; see JA to Jonathan Mason, 3 Oct. 1820, which gives a considerable account of Gooch (Adams Papers; extracts quoted in JA, Works, 2:93, note). Since the Quincy and Adams families were united by JA’s marriage (his wife being a granddaughter of Col. John Quincy and their eldest son
being named for him), any retrospective account by an Adams is likely to be prejudiced.
But the reference in JA’s Diary, it should be noted, antedates the union of the families.

According to JA, Gooch, who was well-to-do, made a bargain with leading Anglicans, including Rev.
Ebenezer Miller, minister of Christ Church in Braintree, offering to build a steeple
for Christ Church if his influential friends could persuade Governor Shirley to obtain
the colonelcy for Gooch. Shirley did so, but the new colonel proved highly unpopular
in Braintree and before long moved to Milton without carrying out his part of the
bargain. Deacon John Adams had had a part in this affair, as his son recalled: the
elder Adams had been a lieutenant in the militia, but upon being offered a captaincy
under Gooch he declined to serve under any other officer than Quincy.

2. Trifling, frivolous (OED). This comment on Dr. Gardiner appears to be JA’s own, though by arbitrarily enclosing this paragraph in quotation marks in his text
of the Diary CFA attributes it to Gooch and thus makes him the subject of JA’s rebuke in the next paragraph; see JA, Works, 2:95. It is more likely that JA is rebuking himself.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0004-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-08-12

1760. Aug. 12th.

Remonstrated at the sessions vers. Licensing Lambard, because the select Men had refused
to approbate him, because he never was approbated by the select men, to keep a Tavern
in the House he now lives in, because there are already 3 and his would make 4 Taverns
besides Retailers, within 3/4 of a Mile, and because he obtained a License from that
Court, at April sessions, by artfully concealing his Removal from the Place where
he formerly kept, and so by an Imposition on the Court. These Reasons prevailed. Majr.
Miller, Coll. Miller and Ruddock, were the only Justices on Lambards side, while I
had 8 or 9, Wendells, Coll. Phillips, Mr. Dana, Mr. Storer &c. &c. &c. Mr. Dana enquired,
whether those Landing Places at Braintree and Weighmouth or the Road where these 4
Taverns stand was not a great stage for { 152 } Travellers. I answered no, and rightly, for the greatest stage that I knew of from
Boston to Plymouth, is in the North Precinct of Braintree, where Mr. Bracket, but
especially where Mr. Bass now keeps. Where Mr. Bass now keeps, there has been a Tavern,
always since my Remembrance, and long before. It is exactly 10 miles from Town, and
therefore a very proper stage for Gentlemen who are going from Boston down to Plymouth,
and to the Cape, and for People who come from the Cape, towards this Town. And there
are very few Travellers either bound to or from Boston, but what stop here, but this
stage is 2 or 3 Miles from the Place in Question. These Things I should have said,
but they did not then occur.

Dana asked next, what Number of Carters, Boatmen, Shipbuilders &c. were ever employed
at a Time, at that Landing Place? I answered half a dozen Carters perhaps. But my
Answer should have been this. At some times there are 3 or 4 or half a dozen Ship
Carpenters, and it is possible there may have been 2 or 3 Boats at that Wharf at a
Time, which will require 1/2 dozen Boatmen, and there has been perhaps 40 Carts in
a day with stones, and Wood and Lumber, but these Carts are coming and going all Day
long so that it is a rare thing to see half a dozen Carts there at a time. In short
there is so much Business done there, as to render one Tavern necessary, but there
is not so much Business, there is no such Concourse of Travellers, no such Multitudes
of busy People at that Landing as to need all this Cluster of Taverns. One Tavern
and one Retailer was tho’t by the select Men quite sufficient for that Place. They
have Appointed one of each, and pray that your Honors would recognize no more.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0004-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-08-19

1760 Aug. 19th.

I began Popes Homer, last Saturday Night was a Week, and last Night, which was Monday
night I finished it. Thus I found that in seven days I could have easily read the
6 Volumes, Notes, Preface, Essays, that on Homer, and that on Homers Battles and that
on the funeral Games of Homer and Virgil &c.1 Therefore I will be bound that in 6 months I would conquer him in Greek, and make
myself able to translate every Line in him elegantly.2

Prat. It is a very happy Thing to have People superstitious. They should believe exactly
as their Minister believes. They should have no Creeds and Confessions <of Faith>. They should not so much as know what they believe. The People ought to be ignorant.
And our Free { 153 } schools are the very bane of society. They make the lowest of the People infinitely
conceited. (These Words I heard Prat utter. They would come naturally enough from
the mouth of a Tyrant or of a K[ing] or Ministry about introducing an Arbitrary Power; or from the mouth of an ambitious
or avaricious Ecclesiastic, but they are base detestable Principles of slavery. He
would have 99/100 of the World as ignorant as the wild Beasts of the forest, and as
servile as the slaves in a Galley, or as oxen yoked in a Team. He a friend to Liberty?
He an Enemy to slavery? He has the very Principles of a Frenchman—worse Principles
than a Frenchman, for they know their Belief and can give Reasons for it.)

Prat. It grieves me to see any sect of Religion extinguished. I should be very sorry,
to have the Quaker Society dissolved, so I should be sorry to [have] Condy’s Anabaptist Society dissolved. I love to see a Variety. A Variety of Religions
has the same Beauty in the Moral World, that a Variety of flowers has in a Garden,
or a Variety of Trees in a forrest.

This fine speech was Prats. Yet he is sometimes of opinion that all these Sectaries
ought to turn Churchmen, and that a Uniform Establishment ought to take place through
the whole Nation. I have heard him say, that We had better all of us come into the
Church, than pretend to overturn it &c. Thus it is, that fine Speechmakers are sometimes
for Uniformity, sometimes for Variety, and Toleration. They dont speak for the Truth
or Weight but for the Smartness, and Novelty, singularity of their speech. However
I heard him make two Observations, that pleased me much more. One was that People
in Years never suppose that young People have any Judgment. Another Was, (when a Deposition
was produced taken by Parson Wells, with a very incorrect Caption, a Caption without
mention of the Cause in which it was to be used, or certifying that the Adverse Party
was present or notifyed) he observed that the Parson could not take a Caption, to
save his Life, and that he knew too much to learn any Thing.

1. For the editions of Pope’s translations of the Iliad and Odyssey owned by JA, see Catalogue of JA’s Library, p. 122–123.

2. A line across the page in the MS separates the present paragraph from those reporting Prat’s observations that follow;
the latter may therefore have been recorded at any time from 19 Aug. to 23 Sept. 1760.

Ephraim Jones, being a Widower and having two Children by a former Wife marries another,
and soon after dies, leaving a Widow, { 154 } and the two Children, mentioned before. The Widow takes one third of the personal
Estate, for ever, and is endowed of one third of the real Estate, which she lets out
to one Tower, as we say to the Halves. Tower breaks up, and plants 1/2 a dozen Acres
of the Land with Corn, which he ploughs and hoes &c. till the 20th of September, when
The Widow his Lessor dies, having given by her Will, all her Estate to her Relations,
Strangers to her late Husband and his Heirs. Now The Question is whether, the one
half of the Produce and profits of this Land which the Widow was by Contract to have
had, shall go to the Executor of her Will, and so to her Legatees, or else to the
Right Heirs, of the Reversion of the Land, expectant on the Widows Death? And Q. also,
whether, the said Right Heirs have the Property of the feed and the Apples, and such
other fruits as the Earth produces spontaneously, or at least without any immediate
Expence and Industry, of the late Tenant in Dower: and Q. also whether the Possession
of the Land vests in the Right [heir] Eo Instante that the Widow dies, so that he has an immediate Right of Entry, or Whether
the Lessee has not Possession, so that he must be ejected?

1. This entry and virtually all of those that follow concerning law cases through 3 Nov.
1760 were omitted by CFA in editing JA’s Diary.

If I am the Proprietor of an House, and I lease it to any Man, and bind my self to
keep it in Repair, it is reasonable and it is Law, that I should have a Rent. So if
I am the owner of a ship, and I let [it] out on a Voyage to the Wist Indies or to Europe it is reasonable, and the maritime
Law has made provision that I should have freight. For the sum of Money, that an House
or a Ship would Cost, would if placed out, on Interest, bring in Annually 6 pr. Cent
for my Use. Now I cant loose the Interest of my money, and besides my House is constantly
wearing and decaying and my ship and her Cordage and her Canvas are continually wearing,
so that the Rent and the freight ought to be sufficient to enable [me] to make these Repairs: But besides this, all Merchants, all Persons who have Property,
in shipping, in Vessells that sail upon the sea, are in a peculiar manner liable to
Accidents and Misfortunes. They are in Danger, from storms, from Rocks and sands,
and they are in Danger from Pyrates and frenchmen, so that the Law, in establishing
the freight of Vessells has made allowance, for these 3 things—for the Interest of
Money on the Capital, for the Constant Expences in Repairing the Hull and the Cordage
and the sails, and for the peculiar Danger from seas, Winds, Rocks and Enemies, which
{ 155 } constantly environ Vessells on the sea. And accordingly the freight or Rent of shipping
is very high in all foreign Voyages. Well, now the same Reasons, which have established
a freight upon Vessells in foreign Voyages, has by Law established a certain share
of the Profits [of] this schooner now in Controversy. But the Case, which is more precisely parrall[el] to this of Mr. Lovell, and which is decisive in this Case, is that of Whaling Voyages.
In Whaling Voyages, of[f] the shoals of Nantuckett, and in those to Hudsons Bay, there is frequently, a Master
of a Vessell, and a Master of the Voyage i.e. a ship is taken into the service, and
Whale Boats put on Board her. The Vessell sails into the Whaling Latitudes, and then
puts her Boats to sea after the Whales. The Whales are taken on Board the Vessell,
and brought home to Cape Cod we’l say, in a sort of Blubber. Wel there, at Cape Cod
they frequently hire other People, People who had no Concern with the Voyage, to boil
that Blubber into oil. When that is done the oyl is sent up to Boston and sold by
Persons who are allowed Commissions for their Pains and after the Oyl is sold, the
Established Rule is, to pay all the Costs of Boiling the Blubber and the Commissions
arising on the sales and then the Vessell which went out upon the Voyage draws one
Quarter of the whole Profits of the Voyage. But the particular Custom which has prevailed
among these small Lighters, and schooners that run out a fishing, where there is not
so much Danger of Shipwreck, is that the schooner or Lighter shall draw one fifth
Part of the Profits of the Voyage. If a schooner runs out in the Harbour a fishing
the schooner draws every fifth fish, and whenever they have taken up any drifted Timber
or Shingles or Boards, the same proportion has been observed. I have known several
Instances in which our Braintree Boats have taken up valuable things adrift, in Cases
where there has been no danger to the Lighter, only her time has been consumed, and
the Boat always drew one fifth of such drifted Timber as well as of the fish. The
only thing, that I can think of, and which the first [ . . . ]2 to its utmost extent [ . . . ] think of, as I believe to distinguish this Case from any of the 3 that I have mentioned,
either from that of a ship on a foreign Voyage or of any Vessell on a Whaling Voyage
or of common Lighters and schooners on fishing Voyages, is this. That the schooner
was not stout enough to weigh the Anchor and they were obliged to hire another Vessell
to go down a Weight [i.e. and weigh?] it.—I beg your H[onor’] s careful Attention to this Point, because I suppose the whole stress of the Cause
will be laid upon it, by the other side.—Now this I insist upon it can make no Alteration
in the Case at all. For Mr. Lovells Vessell went out, upon the supposition { 156 } that she should draw 1/5 of the whole Profits of the Voyage, 1/5 of all the fish,
that should be caught, and 1/5 of every Thing that he found adrift upon the surface
or drawn upon from the Bottom of the Sea. And without this Prospect of 1/5 of the
Profits, he would not have let her gone. He could have gone in her himself and made
Profits by her or he could have let her out to others who would have minded their
fishing, and so have gained Profits for him as well as for themselves. Suppose it
had been said to Mr. Lovell, let us have your schooner to go out a fishing, and if
we catch any, you shall have a fifth, but if we catch none, you shall have nothing
and I believe we shant for we intend to spend most of our time in Poking after an
Anchor or a Chest of Gold, that we suppose to be lost out in the Harbour; but if we
should find this Anchor or Chest your schooner is not able to weight it, and so you
shall have no Part of that.

Would Captn. Lovell have consented to that. No he would have laughed at them for fools
to think he would, or have frowned upon them in Resentment of an Affront, for such
a Proposal in Earnest would have been an affront. Well now what he could not have
been desired reasonably to have consented to before the Voyage Your Honor cant desire
him to do, and the Law will not oblige him to do after the Voyage. The Time of [the] Schooner was spent in securing of the anchor, time in which she might have earned
him money either in fighting or fishing, his Vessell, his Ropes, and Sails were worn
in the service, which will cost him money to repair; and what is worse than both the
former, his Property was endangered, his Anchor was in great Risque of being irrecoverably
lost in the first Place by its Entanglement with the large Anchor at the Bottom, and
afterwards by the Use they made of it in raking at the Bottom to bring up the Cable
of the great Anchor. And to say that the great Anchor was not weighed by his schooner
is to say nothing. <It was secured by his schooner, and totally by his schooner.>

I say too that the Whales are not taken, cannot be taken by the ship. They are taken
by the Whale Boats: I say too that the ship cant boil the Blubber up into oyl. But
what then? The ship’s time is spent, she is wearing out, and she is endangered, and
therefore she shall draw a Quarter of the Neat Profits of the Voyage after Wages for
Boiling and Commissions for selling, are paid. This I rely upon, this schooners being
unable to weigh the Anchor, is exactly like the ship in Hudsons bays being unable
to chase and take the Whales. And their hiring another Vessell to go down, and weigh
it, is like Whale mens hiring other Men to boil their blubber, and to sell their Oyl,
and that this { 157 } schooner has as good a Right to 1/5 of the 2/3 after the one third is taken out, which
by Agreement was given to the Vessell that weighed it, as a Whaling Vessell has to
one fourth of the whole Profits of the Voyage after enough has been taken out to pay
the Boilers and factors.

And nothing can be more reasonable. Suppose I should Agree with a Man, to let him
have my Horse to Rhode Island to purchase a Quantity of Goods, and he engages I shall
have one fifth or one Qr. of the Profits of his Journey. Well when he gets upon Seachonk
Plain, He finds a Number of People there a horse racing. He challenges every Horse
upon the Plain to run. At last they run for 100 Guineas which my Horse wins. Would
it not be reasonable that I should have a Proportion of that Prize? Shall the Man
that I let him to, run the Hazard of breaking the Neck, or Limbs or Wind of my Horse.
Shall he strain, and violently drive him so as uterly to mar him very much; and I
have no Recompence at all? By no means. Your Honor cant but see, we have a Right,
and I dont doubt youl give it us.

Perhaps some Difficulty may arise in your Honours mind about the Propriety of the
manner of laying this Action. It is an Ind[ebitatus] Ass[umpsit] for so much Money had and received by the Defendant, to the Use of the Plaintiffs,
and it is alledged that the Defendant promised to render a reasonable Account. But
this is the constant form of Suing for things of this sort. If I upon a Reckoning
and settlement with a man pay him by a Mistake £20 more than is due to him, I may
recover it back, by this Action, i.e. he has had and received so much money, which
did not belong to him but to me, so if Money is due to me from another man, and some
3d Person goes to him, and under Pretence of Authority from me, receives that Money,
I may have this Action against him. And in general if any man has received Money,
which did not belong to him, but does belong to me, I may recover it of him by this
Action. Now I think it is plain that Mr. Ward has received the sum mentioned in this
Writ, that it did not belong to him but it did of right belong to the owners of the
schooner the present Plaintiffs, and therefore it follows that he is accountable to
us for it, and I dont doubt your honour will think so too.

1. Second entry so dated. This draft of JA’s argument in Lovell v. Ward was hastily and carelessly written and a few passages remain obscure.

Octr. 7th. 1760.

Waited on Mr. Gridley for his Opinion of my Declaration Lambard v. Tirrell, and for
his Advice, whether to enter the Action or not.1 He { 158 } says the Declaration is bad and the Writ, if Advantage is taken, will abate.

For It is a Declaration on a Parol Lease, not on a Deed, and therefore the Lessee’s
Occupancy ought to be sett forth very exactly, for it is his Occupancy, not any Contract,
that supports the Action.—You have declared, that Defendant by Virtue of the Demise,
into the Tenements, entered, and the same Premises had, held and occupied. But you
have not declared when he entered, nor how long he occupied. He might enter, and remove
again from the Premises in 3 months, for ought appears on this Declaration. You have
taken this Declaration from a Precedent of Lillies. But Lilly and Mallorry are not
Authorities, Coke and Rastall are, and in them, the Distinction is taken between a
Declaration on a Lease Parol, and one on a Deed, an Indenture. In a Declaration on
an Indenture, it is not necessary to set forth when the Defendant entered nor how
long he held: because by the Indenture he had a Right to enter and occupy, if he would,
but whether he occupied, or not, he has indented to pay the Rent, when the time is
out: But in a Declaration, on a Parol Lease, it is necessary to set forth, both when
he entered and how long he stayed, because the Occupancy is the Cause and foundation
of the Action. Besides you have not alledged that the Rent was to be yeilded and payd
upon Demand, and this would abate the Writ.—Mr. Gridley sent me to Otis’s office to
examine in Viners Abrigment, under the Title Rent, and in the Entries, i.e. Lilly,
Mallorry, Coke, and Rastal, under the Title Debt, for some Authority to decide the
Point whether the Exception was fatal, or not. I could find nothing in Viner, Lilly,
or Mallorry, but Mr. Gridley shewed me in Coke and Rastall the Distinction taken between
a Declaration on a Parol and on a Written Lease.

G. says, that an Indenture for the Year 1758, att a certain Rent; and the Lessees
Continuance in the House, and the Lessors Permission to continue in the House, thro
the Year 1759 without any new Indenture, or any Contract or Conversation about any
Rent, is presumptive Evidence, that Each Party intended, the Rent should continue
the same. The Lessees Continuance, in the House, without taking the Pains of going
to the Lessor, to treat about new Terms, is sufficient Evidence of his Satisfaction
with the old Terms and of his Consent to pay the old Rent. And the Lessors Permission
of his Tenant to continue in the House, without taking the Pains to make a new Contract,
is sufficient Evidence of his satisfaction with the old Terms, and of his Consent
that they should continue.

1760. Oct. 9th.

I do not know, nor is it possible for your Honours to determine, what Reason induced
the Plantiff to renounce this suit. Whether it was, because the Estate is insolvent,
or because he had no Cause of Action, or because his Action was mislayed, or because
his Writ was bad, which by the Way is very probable, considering who drew it, that
determined the Plantiff, not to enter this Action, I cannot say, and your Honours
cannot determine. It appears to your Honours, that the Defendant has been vexed and
distressed by this summons, that she has been obliged to take a Journey to this Town,
and to attend upon this Court, where it appears there is nothing for her to answer
to. All this appears. What Motive induced the Plantiff to drop his Action does not
appear, and therefore We have a Right to Costs. As Things are Circumstanced, I will
own, that had this Action been commenced by any Gentleman, at this Bar, I would have
dispensed [with] this Complaint, but it was drawn by a petty fogging Deputy Sheriff against whom I
know it is my Duty, and I think it is my Interest to take all legall Advantages. And
he himself cannot think it hard, as he has taken both illegal and iniquitous Advantages
against me. Therefore I pray your Honours Judgment for Costs.—Q. If this Action should
be entered, what must be done with it? Continued, or dismissed?—A Motion must be made
for a Continuance or a Dismission.

1. Joseph Neal had sued the widow of Capt. Richard Brackett as administratrix of Brackett’s
estate. JA drafted arguments for this case in several entries below. It is not known how the
action, which was entered and continued, presumably in the Inferior Court, came out;
but in the case of Joseph Neal v. Nathan Spear, which grew out of it, JA won costs by a plea in abatement of the writ (see an entry under the assigned date
of Jan.? 1761, below).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0006-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-10-11

1760. Oct. 11th.

Neals Action is entered so that I have two Actions to defend by Pleas in Bar and three
of the Actions I entered, are to be defended, Clark is to Plead in Abatement and Tirrell
and Thayer are, I suppose, to plead to issue. Clark gave a Note of Hand to Captn.
Brackett in his Life time, and after his Death, on a Reckoning with the Administratrix,
a Ballance was found due to the Estate upon Book, for which he gave { 160 } a new Note to the Widow as Administratrix. Now I have laid both these Notes in one
Declaration in Conformity to the Province Law, which forbids two Bills of Cost, upon
Instruments, Bonds, Bills, Notes &c. executed by the same Party, and made payable
to one and the same Person, and put in suit at the same Time. Dana pleads in Abatement,
that these Notes, tho executed by the same Party, were not made payable to one and
the same Person. The first was made payable to Bracket, and the second was made payable
to his Wife—and cites 3rd. Salkeld 202. “A. owed to B. £20 as Executor, and £10 more
in his own Right. One Action will not lie against him for the whole Money, because
there must be several Judgments.” And Dana says, that soon after he began Practice,
he drew a Writ upon a Note taken by an Executor, as Executor, for a Debt of his Testator,
and drew the Writ as if the Note had been taken in the Executors own private Right.
Auchmuty1 for the Defendant, pleaded in Abatement that the Note was given to Plaintiff as Executor,
not in his own Right, and the Inferiour Court abated the Writ, but he appealed, and
at the Superiour Court, got Mr. Reed to speak for him, who contended that the Words
as Executor, were idle, and the Court unanimously set up his Writ.

1. Robert Auchmuty the elder (d. 1750 or 1751), a Scot trained at the Middle Temple who was prominent in the early Boston bar and
other colonial affairs; from 1733 to 1741 he was judge of admiralty for New England.
His son Robert was an associate of JA’s in the Suffolk bar, notably as co-counsel in the defense of Captain Preston in
1770, but he became a loyalist and left America. A sister of the younger Auchmuty,
Isabella, married the lawyer and judge Benjamin Prat. (DAB, under both Auchmutys; NEHGR, 12 [1858]:69–71.)

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0006-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-10-13

1760. Octr. 13th. Monday.

Attended Mr. Niles’s Court this morning for John Holbrook Junior in an Action of his
against Benja. Thayer Junior. Holbrook agreed with Thayer, to submit all Demands together
with both Actions to 3 men.

Mr. Niles told me, that he consulted Mr. Thatcher about entering his Action against
Mrs. Brackett. Thatcher told him, it was as likely that she would recover Costs against
him, as that he would recover Judgment against her, And therefore advised him not
to enter. Niles’s Action is exactly like Neals. How came Thatcher to advise to one
Thing and Dana to another? The Answer is Dana dont care, how the Action goes. He is
sure of his Fee and attendance, whether he gets or looses his Cause.

Thus I find the Bar is divided. Gridley is at a loss. He told me it { 161 } was a Point of Law that would require a leisurely Examination. Thatcher is uncertain,
but thinks it as likely to go in favour of the Administratrix as against her, and
how much more likely he did not say. Kent says, the Administratrix will recover Costs,
in Spight of the Devil, and he has recovered many a Time in such a Case.—It is a great
object of Ambition to settle this Point of Law, whether a suit brought against an
Administrator, who after the Commencement, Entry and several Continuances, represents
the Estate Insolvent, shall be barred, and the Administrator allowed Costs?

I cannot be compelled to accept Mr. Dana’s agreement not to take Execution. And I
insist upon it, if he has Judgment, he may take Execution, and if he takes Execution,
what shall hinder the officer, from levying the whole Debt, and then what becomes
of the Province Law, relating to insolvent Estates? The Words of the Law are “when
the Estate of any Person deceased shall be insolvent, or insufficient to pay all just
Debts, which the deceased owed, the same shall be set forth and distributed, among
all the Creditors in Proportion to the sums to them owing, so far as the said Estate
will extend.”

No Debts whatever are excepted from the Average, but Debts due to the Crown and the
Charges of the last sickness and of the funeral. The Charges of the funeral, of the
last sickness and Crown Debts are to be first paid, and then an Average is to be settled
by Commissioners of Insolvency, before the Administrators can pay another Debt. There
is no Exception of Debts legally demanded before the Representation of Insolvency.
If Debts legally demanded, were to be excepted from the Average, every Debt would
be excepted from the average. As soon as the Intestates Breath is gone, every Creditor
will bring his Action, will make his legal Demand. If this had been Law and known
to be law, 500 suits would have been brought vs. this Administratrix, within a Day
after she took Administration. If this Rule of Law should be established, it would
prove the Destruction of every Intestate Estate in the Province that is considerably
in debt. Every Creditor would bring his suit, immediately, and thus the Costs of Suits
would amount to a greater sum, oftentimes than the Debts.

It would indeed, furnish Employment to the Lawyers, and perhaps, a secret Regard to
Interest has blinded some to the Inconveniences, that must attend it. I think the
Point is clear, that a legal Demand, before the Representation of Insolvency cannot
intitle any Creditor to recover his whole Demand.

Now the Q[uestion] is whether, if this Action should be defaulted, and Judgment made up, and Execution
should issue, it would not { 162 } issue for the whole sum; and if it issues for the whole sum, the sheriff must levy
the whole sum. So that, if Judgment should be rendered now, the whole Demand would
be recovered—for this Court cannot consider an Average, that is not yet settled.

Well, should this Action be continued, along from Court to Court, and Judgment be
entered after the.1

In answer to Sewals objection, I say, that an Administrator de Bonis non, could not
maintain an Action vs. this Defendant, on this Note. But the Administration of this
Administratrix must bring the Action, and stand accountable to the Administrator de
Bonis non, for the Money, and if this Defendant should break, or die insolvent this
would be a good Account.

Her delay to represent this Estate insolvent is of no Consequence at all. She was
in Hopes, the Estate would have been sufficient, and she wanted to make a Calculation
between the Estate and its Debts, before she made that Representation. She did not
want to give the Creditors the Trouble of making out their Claims before Commissioners,
if she could pay them without it. She acted in short as every prudent Administrator
would do, to save herself and family the Disgrace and Curses of Insolvency, and to
save her Creditors, the Trouble of making out their Claims, but People at last grew
impatient and some Gentlemen had propagated an Opinion that those who made a legal
Demand before the Representation, would recover their whole Debts, and summons’s flowed
in upon her from all Quarters. Several Actions were brought against her, at Plymouth
Court, and several more to this Court, and she saw that Ruin would insue to herself
and family if she did not.

Now had this Representation been made when she took Administration, 18 months at least
would have been allowed to examine Claims. But 6 months were allowed [over?] so that the Creditors will receive their share quite as soon as they would, if it
had been represented sooner.

1760. Octr. 17th.

What are the Questions, on which Mrs. Bracketts Bars to Danas Actions turn?—The first
Question is, whether any Action at all can be maintained vs. the Administrator of
an Insolvent Estate excepting for Debt due to the Crown, for sickness and funeral
Charges? And the second is, whether an Action brought before the Representation of
Insolvency, can be maintained, i.e. Whether an Administrator, by { 163 } delaying to represent the Insolvency, makes herself liable to any suit, that is brought
against her. For I take it to be very clear, that when an Estate is represented insolvent,
as soon as an Administrator is appointed no Action can be maintained. All Actions
must be barred, bar’d I mean for a Time, till the Commissioners have reported and
the Average is settled. So that the only Question is, whether Administrators are liable
to suits, till the Representation is made? And with submission I think [it] is certain that they are not. In many Cases it is well known, before a Mans Breath
is gone, that he owes more than he is worth, and in such Cases the Administrator would
do well to represent the Insolvency, at his first Appointment, but there are many
Cases, when it is impossible for the Administrator to know whether his Intestate is
solvent or insolvent, the Quantity of his Lands and goods may be unknown, and the
Number and Quantity of his Debts is always unknown so that no Computation can possibly
be made, and in these Cases, it is certainly reasonable and it is Law, that the Administrator
should have some time to examine and calculate before he makes a Representation, for
if the Estate is sufficient, it would be folly to draw upon his Intestate and himself
and family the Disgrace of Insolvency, and the Curses of the Creditors needlessly,
and it would be a Pitty to put the Estate to the Expence of the Commissioners, and
the Creditors to the Trouble of making out their Claims before them. In all Cases
therefore where it is doubtful whether the Estate is sufficient or insufficient, the
Administrator ought to have time to inform himself, and in the mean time, all the
Creditors must be debared from suits, or if they will bring them they must do it at
their Peril, i.e. if the Estate afterwards proves insolvent, their Actions must be
bared and they must pay Costs. Whether some Limitation of the time, is expedient or
not, it is not our Business to inquire, if the Laws are imperfect in this respect
it is the Business of the Legislature to perfect it, but Mr. Dana cannot avail him
self of a Law that has no being.

Now the Case before your Honour, is of the last sort. At the Time of Capt. Bracketts
Death, it was very doubtful, with every body, whether he left enough to pay his Debts
or not. His Widow, on her appointment, to the Administration, told the Judge, it was
uncertain, and asked time to inform herself; and she has been as diligent as she could,
considering the distressed situation of her family, in making Enquiry after the Debts.
She found Effects enough in her Hands to pay all the Debts that she was apprized of,
and so was unwilling to make the Representation, unwilling to put the Estate to needless
Charge, and Disgrace, unwilling to put her Creditors to the Trouble of making out
{ 164 } their Claims with the Commissioners, till she was satisfyd, there was not enough.
But new Creditors are daily making their Appearance, who have large demands, and some
who were never so civil as to let her know she owed them, have sent her Writts. She
was sued in one Action to this Court for some hundreds, on a Note that she never suspected
to be in Being. In short she finds most of the real Estate under Mortgage, so that
most, if not all the Personal Estate must go to discharge these Mortgages, and then
the real Estate must be sold at Vendue, the Event of which is quite uncertain, and
therefore the Estate is not sufficient to pay. And as the Estate is insolvent, these
suits must be barred. The Law is express, that No Proscess shall be allowed. And I
presume the Reason, why the Law has not confined Administrators to narrow limits,
is that People [must?] be restrained from rushing on such Estates, and by stifling all the sentiments of
Humanity, bringing Destruction on the fatherless and Widows.

The Time for Enquiry, whether the Estate is insolvent, or not, must be dilated on.
It is a momentous Point. Must shew, that the time she has taken, is no more than reasonable.

The Administrator is not liable unless it can be shewn that she has intermeddled with
the Goods and made payment of any Debt. She has never paid any Debt.

In the Beginning of May 58 Mr. Lambard, the Plantiff, gave a Lease of a House and
Barn and Land in Germantown mentioned in the Writ to the Defendant Mr. Tirrell, and
this Lease you will have with you. You will find by it, that Tirrill was to give [illegible initial] &c. the same Rent, that is sued for, in the present Action. In May 1759, i.e. at
the End of the Year, Mr. Lambard went into the service, without making any new Contract,
and Mr. Tirrell and his family continued in the House from that time to this. The
Plantiff has frequently requested his Rent, but has been always refused, and at last
he was obliged to bring his Action. As I said before there was no express Contract
between the Parties, for the Year 1759, but as there was an express Contract for 58,
and as the Defendant continued with his family, and as the Plantiff permitted him
to continue in the House, the natural and legal Presumption is, that each Party was
satisfyd with the old Terms, and intended the old Terms should continue. For had the
Landlord been dissatisfyd with the Terms, it would have been his Business to have
said, you must come upon a new Agreement or else leave the House, and had the Tenant
been dissatisfyd he should { 165 } have said I must have the Place for less Rent or else I must leave. But as each Party
was silent, each Party implicitly consented that the old Conditions should remain;
especially as the Terms were very reasonable. £70 old Tenor, a Year is a moderate
Rent for that Place. There is a very convenient handsome new House, there is a good
Barn, and several good Lotts of Land. Besides the House has had Licence for a Tavern
for these 7 Years, and Mr. Tirrell has all along kept a Tavern there and does to this
day. Now the single Priviledge of keeping a Tavern upon that Place is worth as much
annually as this Rent. For Germantown, you all know is a Place of considerable Resort.
Hardly any Gentlemen of Curiosity from any of the four Governments come to this Town,
without taking a Ride to Germantown to see the Manufactures there, that of Glass and
that of Stockings. Great Numbers of People go out from this Town upon Parties of Pleasure
to Germantown, and there is a considerable Number of Inhabitants upon the Place and
all these must be entertained and supplied, so that considering the House, Barn, Land,
and these Priviledges the Rent is quite moderate, and there can be no Reason why each
Party should not be confined, to those Terms, which the Defendants silence and Continuance
in the House, raise a violent Presumption that he consented to, and I dont doubt,
you’l give us the sum sued for accordingly.

1. Second entry so dated. This is a draft of JA’s argument in the case of Lambard (or Lambert) v. Tirrell in the Inferior Court; see 7 Oct. and note, above.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-03

[3] Novr. 1760. Monday.

Dana says the Administrator ought not to regard the Disgrace or Trouble or Expence
of a Commission of Insolvency, but if it is in the least degree suspicious, that the
Estate will not prove sufficient, he must represent it so, at his first Appointment
i.e. every Day, that he takes to enquire into the Value of the Estate, and the Number
of Debts, is at the Risque of the Creditors, and if any one Creditor brings his Action
he must maintain it, at the Expence of the others. For says he, as no Time is limitted
an Administrator may wait a whole Year, before he represents the Estate insolvent,
and live upon the Estate all that time, to the Injury of the Creditors. Nay he may
neglect it two Years, or 10 Years, till he has wasted, spent, or alienated the whole
Estate.

I say, it is reasonable that a Time should be allowed the Administrator to enquire,
to make a Computation of the Effects, and to enquire into the No. and Quantity of
the Debts, that he may be able to judge, whether the Estate is insolvent or not. For
a Commission of Insolvency { 166 } is an Evil, always to be avoided, if Possible. It is always considered as a Disgrace
to a family. It is always a great Expence to the Estate. It always provokes the Curses
of the Creditors, and puts them to the Trouble in attending the Commissioners to prove
their Debts. And it is not only reasonable, that a Time of Enquiry should be allowed,
but it is Law. And the Executor or Administrator appointed to any Insolvent Estate,
before Payment to any be made, except as aforesaid, shall represent the Condition
and Circumstances thereof unto the Judge of Probate. Here is plainly a time allowed
him, and there is no Limitation of that time. It is only said the Representation must
be made before any Payment is made. And here is an Exception, which clearly gives
the Administrator, some time; the Exception is of Debts due to the Crown, of sickness
and funeral Charges. These the Administrator, after his Appointment may pay, before
he is obliged to represent it insolvent, and he could not pay these any more than
any other Debts unless some time was allowed him.

Mr. Danas Objections are in my humble opinion of little Weight. He says, that if the
Administrator is not obliged to represent immediately, he may delay it, till she and
her family have consumed, or by fraud conveyed away the Estate. But your Honours know
that Apprisers are appointed, always directly after the Administrator is appointed,
who are to make an Inventory and then the Administrator charges herself with all the
Articles in the Inventory, and gives Bonds to be accountable for them at the apprized
Value, at the Years End. So that if the Estate is wasted the Administrators Bond may
be put in suit. Besides, admitting here is a Defect in the Law, in this Respect, Admitting
a new Law is expedient, to limit the Time of [representation], such a Law has no Existence, nor can Mr. Dana avail himself of a Law that has no
Being, however expedient it may be, especially when the Representation is made within
a reasonable Time, as this was. The Representation was made in 9 months, which was
a short space of Time considering the Circumstances of this affair. Brackett was struck
out of Life suddenly, left a very distressed family, and a very perplexed and embarrassed
Estate, so that it was impossible for the Widow to recover from her surprize, and
make any Inquiry so as to satisfy herself whether the Estate was sufficient or not,
sooner than she did. And I presume the Reason why the Law has not confined the Administrator
to such Estates to narrow limits, is, because Persons, that die so much in Debt, commonly
leave Widows and Children behind them, who have been used to decent and reputable
living, and will therefore, if some reasonable time is not allowed them to keep together,
{ 167 } recover their surprize and look about them, will be driven to absolute Despair. And
to this Purpose and that the Estate may not be burdened with Costs, the Law has provided,
that no Proscess shall be allowed, while any such Estate is depending as aforesaid,
which Words extend as well to the Time, the Estate is depending under the Examination
and Enquiry of the Administrator as to that between the Representation of Insolvency
and the settling of the Average. And it is quite reasonable that this Action in Particular,
should be barred, because it was entered, out of the meer Humour and Obstinacy of
the Plantiff. Tho it was commenced before the Representation it was entered afterwards,
whereas if he had been a reasonable Man, instead of entering and driving this Action,
as he has done, he should have dropd it without Entry.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-05

Nov. 5th. 1760.

I presume upon the common sense of the World that no offence will be taken at the
Freedom of the following Sentiments while the utmost Deference for Authority and Decency
of Language is preserved, as Persons of obscure Birth, and Station, and narrow Fortunes
have no other Way, but thro the Press to communicate their Tho’ts abroad, either to
the high or the low.

The Vacancy, in the highest seat of Justice in the Province occasioned by the Death
of J[udge] Sewal, naturally stirrs the Minds of all, who know the Importance of a wise, steady
and loyal Administration of Justice, to enquire for a fit Person to fill that Place.2 Such Persons know, that the Rules of the common Law are extreamly numerous, that
Acts of Parliament are numerous, some taken from, or at least in spirit, from the
Civil Law, others from the Cannon and feudal Law. Such Persons know that the Histories
of Cases and Resolutions of Judges have [been] preserved from a very great Antiquity, and they know also, that every possible Case
being thus preserved in Writing, and settled in a Precedent, leaves nothing, or but
little to the arbitrary Will or uninformed Reason of Prince or Judge.

And it will be easy, for any Man to conclude what opportunities, Industry, and Genius
employd from early Youth, will be necessary to gain a Knowledge, from all these sources,
sufficient to decide the Lives, Liberties and fortunes of Mankind, with safety to
the Peoples Liberties, as well as the Kings Prerogative, that happy Union, in which
the Excellence of british Government consists, and which has often { 168 } been preserved by the deep Discernment and noble spirit of english Judges.

It will be easy for any Man to conclude that a Man whose Youth and Spirits and Strength,
have been spent, in Husbandry Merchandize, Politicks, nay in science or Literature
will never master so immense and involved a science: for it may be taken for a never
failing Maxim, that Youth is the only Time for lay[ing] the Foundation of a great Improvement in any science or Profession and that an Application
in advanced Years, after the Mind is crowded, the Attention divided, or dissipated,
and the Memory in part lost will make but a tolerable Artist at best.

1. This draft of a communication to a newspaper is obviously incomplete and does not
appear to have been published.

2. Chief Justice Stephen Sewall died on 10 Sept. 1760, and a bitter contention ensued
over the succession to his post. According to a retrospective account by Edmund Trowbridge,
the two candidates who made themselves most conspicuous by their own efforts were
William Brattle and the elder James Otis. When, on 13 Nov., Lt. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson
was named, the two disappointed candidates were so “very angry with him and every
one else they knew or suspected had not favoured their Respective Claims,” that much
of the subsequent political squabbling in Massachusetts was a result of their irritation
(Trowbridge to William Bollan, 15 July 1762, MHS, Colls., 74 [1918]:66). Neither Brattle nor Otis nor Hutchinson had had regular legal training,
and so it would appear that JA is arguing against the appointment of any one of the three. If he had completed his
article, we would doubtless know whom he was for.

Another Year is now gone and upon Recollection, I find I have executed none of my
Plans of study. I cannot Satisfy my self that I am much more knowing either from Books,
or Men, from this Chamber, or the World, than I was at least a Year ago, when I wrote
the foregoing Letter to Sewal.2 Most of my Time has been spent in Rambling and Dissipation. Riding, and Walking,
Smoking Pipes and Spending Evenings, consume a vast Proportion of my Time, and the
Cares and Anxieties of Business, damp my Ardor and scatter my attention. But I must
stay more at home—and commit more to Writing. A Pen is certainly an excellent Instrument,
to fix a Mans Attention and to inflame his Ambition. I am therefore beginning a new
literary Year, with the 26th. of my life.3

1. This and the following two entries, all of them bearing the same date, are inserted
here from D/JA/4, the journal of studies that JA projected in Oct. 1759 (see entries there) but proceeded to neglect for over a year.

3. An approximation. JA’s 26th birthday fell on 19 Oct. 1760 according to the Old Style calendar; on 30 Oct.
according to the New Style.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-14

1760. Novr. 14th. Friday.

I am just entered on the 26th Year of my Life, and on the fifth Year of my studies
in Law, and I think it is high Time for a Reformation both in the Man, and the Lawyer.
25 Years of the Animal Life is a great Proportion to be spent, to so little Purpose,
and four Years, the Space that we spend at Colledge is a great deal of Time to spend
for no more Knowledge in the science and no more Employment in the Practice of Law.
Let me keep an exact Journal therefore of the Authors I read, in this Paper.1

This day I am beginning my Ld. Hales History of the Common Law, a Book borrowed of
Mr. Otis, and read once already, Analysis and all, with great Satisfaction. I wish
I had Mr. Blackstones Analysis, that I might compare, and see what Improvements he
has made upon Hale’s.

But what principally pleased me, in the first Reading of Hales History, was his Dissertation
upon Descents, and upon Tryals by a Jury.

Hales Analysis, as Mr. Gridley tells me, is an Improvement of one, first planned and
sketched by Noy, an Attorney General in the Reign of Charles 1st. And Mr. Blackstone’s
is an Improvement upon Hales.2

1760. Novr. 14. Friday.

His great Distribution of the Laws of England is into Leges scriptae and Leges non
scriptae. The first are Acts of Parliament which are originally reduced to writing
before they are enacted, or receive any binding Power, every such Law being in the
first Instance, formally drawn up in Writing, and made as it were a Tripartite Indenture,
between the King, the Lords and Commons.

The Leges non scriptae, altho there may be some Monument or Memorial of them in Writing
(as there is of all of them) yet all of them have not their original in Writing, but
have obtained their Force by immemorial Usage or Custom.

1. Transcribed by JA from the titlepage of Sir Matthew Hale’s The History and Analysis of the Common Law of England, London, 1713. JA could make no sense of it because it is garbled Greek for which the printer may have
been re• { 170 } | view sponsible. CFA subjoined the following note on the passage: “Stephanus quotes the following as a
proverb,—

Ἰσχυρὸν ὁ νόμος έστ𐎯ν, ἤν ἄρχοντ᾽ ἔχῃ. which he translates,—The law is powerful if it have an executor” (JA, Works, 2:101). The Stephani, or Estiennes, were 16th-century printers and lexicographers;
see Catalogue of JA’s Library, p. 86. Hale’s titlepage motto is evidently a distorted version of this “proverb.”

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-15

1760. Novr. 15th. Sat.

Spent last Evening at Coll. Quincys, with Coll. Lincoln. Several Instances were mentioned,
when the Independency and Superiority of the Law in general over particular Departments
of officers, civil and military, has been asserted and maintained, by the Judges,
at Home. Ld. Cokes Resolution in the Case of —— in oposition to the opinion, and even
to the orders, and passionate Threatnings of the King. Ld. Holts refusal to give the
House of Lords his Reasons, for his Judgment in the Case of —— in an extra judicial
Manner, i.e. without being legally and constitutionally called before them by a Rit
[Writ] of Error, Certiorari, or false Judgment. And C[hief] J[ustice] Wills’s resolute spirited assertion of the Rits [Rights] of common Law in opposition to the Court Martial against the Intercession of powerful
Friends, and even of the Ministry if not the K[ing] himself.1

1. CFA identifies two of the cases here referred to (JA, Works, 2:101).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0007

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-19

1760. Novr. 19th.

Parson Smith says the Art of Printing like most other Arts, and Instruments, was discovered
by Accident. Somebody, at an idle Hour, had whitled his Name, cut his Name out in
the Bark of a Tree. And when his Name was fairly cut out, he cut it off [and] put it into his Hankerchief. The Bark was fresh, and full of Sap, and the Sap colored
his Hankerchief, i.e. printed his Name upon it. And from observing that he tooke the
Hint.

Dined at Badcocks, with McKenzie. He pretends to Mechanicks, and Manufactures. He
owns the snuff Mill, and he is about setting up some Machine to hull our Barley. One
Welsh dined with us, who he said was the best, most ingenious Tradesman, that ever
was in this Country. McKenzie and Welsh were very full of the Machinery, in Europe,
the Fire Engines, the Water Works, the silk Machines, the Wind Mills, in Holland &c.
McKenzie says there are 27, 000 Wheels, and 90, 000 Movements in the silk Machine.
You may see 10,000 Wind Mills go• { 171 } ing at once in Holland. Thus he tells Wondrous Things, like other Travellers.—I suspect
he would be unable to describe the fire Engine or the Water Works. Had I been Master
of my self I should have examined him, artfully, but I could not recollect any one
Particular of the fire Engine, but the Receiver, and that he says is no Part of the
Engine. But he talks about a Center Cylinder.

This conceited Scotchman has been a Rambler I believe. He set up Merchandize in New
London. He married a Cunningham, sister to Otis’s Wife.—These restless Projectors,
in Mechanicks, Husbandry, Merchandize, Manufactures, seldom succeed here. No Manufactury
has succeeded here, as yet. And I believe Franklins Reasoning is good, and the Causes
he mentions will hinder the growth of Manufactures here in America, for a great While
yet to come.2

1. Apparently a second entry for 19 Nov., but the preceding entry should perhaps have
been dated a day earlier.

2. The reference is to Franklin’s “Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling
of Countries, Etc.,” written in 1751 and first published four years later in Boston.
Franklin reasoned that since land was so plentiful in America, labor would long be
costly. “The Danger therefore of these Colonies interfering with their Mother Country
in Trades that depend on Labour, Manufactures, &c., is too remote to require the attention
of Great-Britain” (Writings, ed. Smyth, 3:65–66.)

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0009

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-21

1760. Novr. 21st. Friday.

This day has been spent to little Purpose. I must confine my Body, or I never shall
confine my Tho’ts. Running to Drs., cutting Wood, blowing fires, cutting Tobacco,
waste my Time, scatter my Thoughts, and divert my Ambition. A Train of Thought, is
hard to procure. Trifles light as Air, break the Chain, interrupt the series.

Finished the History of the Common Law, the second Time. The Dissertation on hereditary
Descents, and that on Tryals by Juries, are really, very excellent Performances, and
well worth repeated, attentive Reading.

1. This, the second entry so dated, is from D/JA/4, JA’s fragmentary record of studies.

Pater was in a very sociable Mood this Evening. He told 3 or 4 merry stories of old
Horn. Old Horn, a little crooked old Lawyer in my fathers Youth, who made a Business
of Jest and Banter, attacked an old Squaw one Day upon the Neck. The old Squaw made
answer, { 172 } “You poor smitten Boy, you with your Knife in your Tail and your Loaf on your Back,
did your Mother born you so?”

A Man, whom he assaulted at another Time, with his Jests, asked him “Did you come
straight from Boston?” And upon being answered yes, replied you have been miserably
warped by the Way then.

A Market Girl whom he overtook upon the Neck, and asked to let him jigg her? answered
by asking what is that? What good will that do? He replied it will make you fat! Pray
be so good then says the Girl as to Gigg my Mare. She’s miserably lean.

Novr. 25th. 1760.

Rode to the Iron Works Landing to see a Vessell launched. And after Launching went
to smoke a Pipe, at Ben. Thayers, where the Rabble filled the House. Every Room, kitchen,
Chamber was crowded with People.1 Negroes with a fiddle. Young fellows and Girls dancing in the Chamber as if they
would kick the floor thro. Zab Hayward, not finding admittance to the Chamber, gathered
a Circle round him in the lower Room. There He began to shew his Tricks and Postures,
and Activity. He has had the Reputation, for at least fifteen Years, of the best Dancer
in the World in these Towns. Several attempted, but none could equal him, in nimbleness
of heels. But he has no Conception of the Grace, the Air nor the Regularity of dancing.
His Air is absurd and wild, desultory, and irregular, as his Countenance is low and
ignoble. In short the Air of his Countenance, the Motions of his Body, Hands, and
Head, are extreamly silly, and affected and mean.

When he first began, his Behaviour and Speeches were softly silly, but as his Blood
grew warm by motion and Liquor, he grew droll. He caught a Girl and danced a Gigg
with her, and then led her to one side of the Ring and said, “Stand there, I call
for you by and by.” This was spoke comically enough, and raised a loud laugh. He caught
another Girl, with light Hair, and a Patch on her Chin, and held her by the Hand while
he sung a song, describing her as he said. This tickled the Girls Vanity, for the
song which he applied to her described a very fine Girl indeed.

One of his witty droll sayings he thought, was this. I am a clever fellow, or else
the Devil is in me. That is a Clever Girl or else the Devil is in her. Wm. Swan is
such another Funmaking animal of diverting Tricks.

“I must confess I am an old Man, and as father Smith says hardly capable of doing
my Duty.” This raised a broad Laugh too.

Thus, in dancing, singing songs, drinking flip, running after one Girl, and married
Woman and another, and making these affected, humorous Speeches, he spent the whole
Afternoon.—And Zab and I were foolish enough to spend the whole afternoon in gazing
and listening.

Gurney danced, but was modest and said nothing. E. Turner danced not, but bawled aloud.—God
dam it, and dam it, and the Devil, &c.—And swore he’d go to Captn. Thayers, and be
merry and get as drunk as the Devil. He insisted upon it, drunk he would get. And
indeed, not 2 pence better than drunk he was.

Fiddling and dancing, in a Chamber full of young fellows and Girls, a wild Rable of
both sexes, and all Ages, in the lower Room, singing dancing, fiddling, drinking flip
and Toddy, and drams.—This is the Riot and Revelling of Taverns And of Thayers frolicks.

1. The “Iron Works Landing” and Benjamin Thayer’s tavern, on the Monatiquot River where
it flows into Fore River Bay, may be seen at the foot of JA’s sketch map of taverns in Braintree and Weymouth, reproduced in this volume. This entire entry
was omitted by CFA in editing JA’s Diary.

Ten days are now elapsed, since I began Hale the 2d time, and all the Law I have read,
for 10 days, is that Book once thro. I read Woods Institute thro the first Time with
Mr. Put. in twice that time i.e. in 3 Weeks, and kept a school every day. My present
Inattention to Law is intolerable and ruinous.

1. This entry and those that follow, through 1 Dec. 1760, are again from D/JA/4, JA’s record of studies.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0014

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-26

1760. Novr. 26th Wednesday.

Night before Thanksgiving.—I have read a Multitude of Law Books—mastered but few.
Wood. Coke. 2 Vols. Lillies Ab[ridgmen]t. 2 Vols. Salk[eld’s] Rep[orts]. Swinburne. Hawkins Pleas of the Crown. Fortescue. Fitzgibbons. Ten Volumes in folio
I read, at Worcester, quite thro—besides Octavos and Lesser Volumes, and many others
of all sizes that I consulted occasionally, without Reading in Course as Dictionaries,
Reporters, Entries, and Abridgments, &c.

I cannot give so good an Account of the Improvement of my two last Years, spent in
Braintree. However I have read no small Number of Volumes, upon the Law, the last
2 Years. Justinians Institutes I { 174 } | view have read, thro, in Latin with Vinnius’s perpetual Notes, Van Muydens Tractatio Institutionum
Justiniani, I read thro, and translated, mostly into English, from the same Language.
Woods Institute of the Civil Law, I read thro. These on the civil Law; on the Law
of England I read Cowells Institute of the Laws of England, in Imitation of Justinian,
Dr. and student, Finch’s Discourse of Law, Hales History, and some Reporters, Cases
in Chancery, Andrews &c. besides occasional searches for Business. Also a general
Treatise of naval Trade and Commerce, as founded on the Laws and Statutes. All this
series of Reading, has left but faint Impressions, and [a] very Imperfect system of Law in my Head.

I must form a serious Resolution of beginning and pursuing quite thro, the Plans of
my Lords Hale, and Reeve. Woods Inst[itutes] of common Law I never read but once, and my Ld. Coke’s Com[mentary] on Lit[tleton] I never read but once. These two Authors I must get, and read, over and over again.
And I will get em too, and break thro, as Mr. Gridly expressed it, all obstructions.

Besides, I am but a Novice in natural Law and civil Law. There are multitudes of excellent
Authors, on natural Law, that I have never read, indeed I never read any Part of the
best authors, Puffendorf and Grotius. In the Civil Law, there are Hoppius, and Vinnius,
Commentators on Justinian, Domat, &c. besides Institutes of Cannon and feudal Law,
that I have to read.

Much may be done in two Years, I have found already. And let it be my Care, that at
the End of the next two Years I be better able to shew that no Time has been lost
than I ever have been yet.

Thus let me, every night before I go to bed, write down in this Book, what Book of
Law, I have read.

1. Quoted from the “Golden Verses of Pythagoras,” a collection of maxims actually written
by disciples of Pythagoras. Professor Johannes A. Gaertner of Lafayette College has
kindly furnished the following translation: “Let not sleep be admitted to tiring eyes
before going over each of the daily tasks thrice. What have I omitted? What have I
achieved? What has not been finished that was my duty?” Years later JA read through the “Golden Verses” in a French translation and wrote a rather bemused
marginal commentary on them which has been published by Zoltán Haraszti in More Books, 1:106–110 (April 1926). Of the first sentence in the present passage he remarked:
“Wise but very difficult.” Still later, JQA prefixed a verse translation of this passage to his Diary for 1819; see his Memoirs, 4:203.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0015

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-28

1760 Novr. 28th. Friday.

I have not read one Word of Law, this Day. But several Points, and Queries have been
suggested to me, by the Consultors.—In whom is the Fee, and Freehold of our burying
Yard? What Right has any Man to erect a Monument, or sink a Tomb there, without the
Consent of the Proprietors? In England, the Church Yards are the Places of Burial,
and the Parson is seised in fee, of them as of the Ground whereon the Church stands.
But our Burying Yards, as well as the Ground, on which our Temples stand, are not
vested in our incumbent Ministers, but in the Precinct or Parish, (the Corporation
socalled) where they lie, according to the late Resolution in the Dedham Case.

The Property of our Meeting House, is in the Precinct, i.e. the dissenting Part of
it,—And I think the Precinct, by its Committee sold the Pews to particular Persons,
and perhaps, the Persons who have erected Tombs, might previously ask And obtain the
Priviledge of the Precinct.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0016

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-29

1760. Novr. 29th. Saturday.

Read no Law.—An exclusive Property is certainly claimed and enjoyed, by private Persons,
in Tombs and Monuments, as well as in Pews. Inhabitants of other Towns, have usually
asked Leave of the Select Men, to bury their dead in our burying Place. But I should
think the Precinct Assessors, or Parish Committee, had rather the Inspection of our
burying Yard. My Father never knew License given nor asked of Town, nor Precinct to
sink a Tomb, nor to [raise a] Monument.

Suppose my Father, Wife, Child, friend died, and I order the sexton, or on his Refusal
my own servant to open any Tomb in our burying Yard, and without further Ceremony
deposit the Corps there, can the pretended Proprietor have any Action, or Remedy against
me? The Course of the Descent of these Tombs and Pews, when undisposed by Will, is
a matter of uncertainty too. Do they descend to the Heirs, as Inheritances in Houses
and Lands, or do they go to the Executor or Administrator, as personal Estate?

There is an Anecdote in the Spectator, of De Wit, the famous dutch Politician. Somebody
asked him how he could rid his Hands of that endless Multiplicity and Variety of Business
that passed thro them, without Confusion? He answered, “by doing one Thing at once.”
When he began Any Thing, he applied his whole Attention to it, till he had finished
it.—This Rule should be observed in Law. If any Point is to be examined, every Book
should be consulted and every Light { 176 } should be considered, before you proceed to any other Business or study. If any Book
is to be read, no other Book should be taken up to divert or interrupt your Attention
till that Book is finished.

Order, Method, Regularity in Business or Study have excellent Effects both in saving
of Time and in bettering and improving Performance. Business done, in order, is done
sooner, and better.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0007-0017

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-11-30

Novr. 30th. Sunday.

Read no Law. Read Bolinbroke.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0008-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-12-01

1760. Decr. 1st. Monday.

I am beginning a Week and a month, and I arose by the Dawning of the Day. And by sun
rise had made my fire and read a number of Pages in Bolinbroke. Tuesday and Wednesday
passed, without reading any Law.1

1. There are no further entries in D/JA/4, JA’s record of studies, until 27 Jan. 1761.

Spent the Evening at Coll. Q.’s with Captn. Freeman. About the middle of the Evening
Dr. Lincoln and his Lady came in. The Dr. gave us an ample Confirmation of our Opinion
of his Brutality and Rusticity. He treated his Wife, as no drunken Cobler, or Clothier
would have done, before Company. Her father never gave such Looks and Answers to one
of his slaves in my Hearing. And he contradicted he Squibd, shrugged, scouled, laughd
at the Coll. in such a Manner as the Coll. would have called Boorish, ungentlemanly,
unpolite, ridiculous, in any other Man. More of the Clown, is not in the World. A
hoggish, ill bred, uncivil, haughty, Coxcomb, as ever I saw. His Wit is forced and
affected, his Manners to his father, Wife, and to Company are brutally rustic, he
is ostentatious of his Talent at Disputation, forever giving an History, like my Uncle
Hottentot,2 of some Wrangle he has had with this and that Divine. Affects to be thought an Heretic.
Disputes against the Eternity of Hell, torments &c. His treatment of his Wife amazed
me. Miss Q. asked the Dr. a Question. Miss Lincoln seeing the Dr. engaged with me,
gave her Mother an Answer, which however was not satisfactory.3 Miss Q. repeats it. “Dr. you did not hear my Question.”—“Yes I did, replies the Dr.,
and the Answer to it, my Wife is so pert, she must put in her Oar, or she must blabb,
before I could speak.” And then shrugged And affected a laugh, to cow her as he used
to, the freshmen and sophymores at Colledge. { 177 } —She sunk into silence and shame and Grief, as I thought.—After supper, she says “Oh
my dear, do let my father see that Letter we read on the road.” Bela answers, like
the great Mogul, like Nero or Caligula, “he shant.”—Why, Dr., do let me have it! do!—He
turns his face about as stern as the Devil, sour as Vinegar. “I wont.”—Why sir says
she, what makes you answer me so sternly, shant and wont?—Because I wont, says he.
Then the poor Girl, between shame and Grief and Resentment and Contempt, at last,
strives to turn it off with a Laugh.—“I wish I had it. Ide shew it, I know.”—Bela
really acts the Part of the Tamer of the Shrew in Shakespear. Thus a kind Look, an
obliging Air, a civil Answer, is a boon that she cant obtain from her Husband. Farmers,
Tradesmen, Soldiers, Sailors, People of no fortune, Figure, Education, are really
more civil, obliging, kind, to their Wives than he is.—She always is under Restraint
before me. She never dares shew her endearing Airs, nor any fondness for him.

1. First entry in D/JA/6, an assemblage of loose sheets in which JA made entries at rather irregular intervals until 3 March 1761. About half of these
entries, including the present one, were not printed by CFA in his edition of the Diary, and those he did print are frequently incomplete.

3. The nomenclature in this passage is somewhat puzzling. “Miss Q.” can only mean “Mistress
Quincy,” the wife of Col. Josiah Quincy, since she is immediately identified as the
“Mother” (actually stepmother) of “Miss” (i.e. Mistress) Lincoln, that is to say of
Hannah (Quincy) Lincoln. From this it is evident that Elizabeth (Waldron) Quincy,
the Colonel’s 2d wife, was living in Dec. 1760, though the date of her death is usually
given as 1759. (Quincy married a third time, but not until 1762.)

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0008-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-12-06

Decr. 6th. 1760.

Talked with Zab about Newton, Bacon, Lock, Martin, Chambers, Rowning, Desaguliers,
S’Gravesende &c. I told him I had a low Opinion of the Compilers, Abridgers, and Abstract
makers. We had better draw science from its fountain in original Authors. These Writers,
the Hirelings of the Booksellers, only vend us the Discoveries of other Philosophers,
in another form, and under another Title, in order to get Bread to eat and Raiment
to put on.—Zab says, that Martin has made several Discoveries—has invented new Machines,
improved and perfected old ones, nay has even detected Errors in Newton. E.g. Newton
always thought, the Moon was surrounded by an Atmosphere, but Martin proved it is
not; because the Starrs, that appear all round it above, below and on each side of
it, are not diminished in their Lustre, as they would appear, if the Rays passed from
them thro an Atmosphere.

Then we transited to Dr. Simpson [Simson], Euclid &c. and he { 178 } | view asked me to demonstrate, that the 3 Angles of a Triangle are equal to 2 Right. I undertook
it. Draw a right Line, A.B. Erect the Perpendicular, C.D. Draw the Hypothenuse D.A.
Parallel to A.D. draw the Line C.E.

Now I say that the 3 Angles ACD., CDA., and DAC are equal to two right Angles. For
it is easy to see that DCA., is a right Angle, and that BCE, which is equal to CAD
added to ECD, which is equal to CDA, make another right Angle. But how do I know that
BCE is equal to CAD? Let the Triangle ECB, be moved along, to the left hand and by
the Hypothesis CE will fall upon AD and CB Upon AC, and of Consequence the 2 Angles
are equal. How then do I know that the Angle ECD is equal to ADC? See the Dem[onstration] in Euclid.

Then we attempted to demonstrate the 47th of the 1st Book. That the Square of the
Hypothenuse is equal to the Squares of both the Legs.

I am astonished at my own Ignorance in the french tongue. I find I can neither express
my own Thoughts, in it, nor understand others, who express theirs readily in it. I
can neither give nor receive Thoughts, by that Instrument.

1760. Decr. 8.

1. The illegible word begins with “D” but is not “Discourses.” JA’s lining out is careless; it is possible that he intended to leave “Began Machiavell”
as the entry for this day.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0008-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-12-14

Decr. 14th. 1760.

Hunt v. White. Complaint to Coll. Quincy—of a scandalous Lye, made and published to
Hunts Damage.

We appear before your Honour to complain of a very slanderous, and malicious Lye,
made and published to our Damage. We complain of a Violation of the Law of this Province
against Lying and Libelling. The Law runs thus.—If any Person &c. shall wittingly
and willingly make or publish any Lye or Libel tending to the Defamation or Damage
&c., make or Spread any false News or Reports &c., and being convicted before one
or more Justices, he shall be fined &c. and find sureties.—The Legislature, knowing
the quickness and Violence of human Passions saw the Tendency of the Publication of
Lyes and false stories, concerning any Person, to raise his Resentment, and provoke
him to break the Peace. They knew what a Provocation it was, to recur to Clubbs and
fists and swords, the Remedies of Mohocks and Catabaws and to the utter Disturbance
of the Peace of society. To prevent therefore the Mischifs and Distraction that might
ensue from such Provocations and Resentment they enacted this Law—that Men injured
in such a manner might instantly have recourse to a Majestrate and have the Lyar punished
for his Malice, and bound to the Behaviour. Now We complain of the Publication of
such a Lye—and if we can shew that the Defendant has published such a Lye, i.e. any
tending to our Defamation or Damage, that he has spread a false Report, with Intent
to abuse us and deceive others, we shall expect your Honours will convict of a breach
of this Law, fine him, as this Law directs, and bind him to his good Behaviour. In
order to this, I { 180 } beg leave to lay open as concisely as I can, the previous Facts, which gave Occasion
to use the force of the Province Law to this Lye, this false story.

Mr. Hunt, it seems sometime after last Thanksgiving Day, made his application to Mr.
Justice Dyer, for a Warrant to search for stolen goods. The Justice administered an
oath to him and he swore that on the Night after last Thanksgiving Day, his House
was broken and 17£ of Money stolen from his Chest. A Warrant of search was granted
and dilligent search was made, but the Money not found. This opportunity it seems,
Captn. White took to raise and spread a Lye.—I must be excused, for using these Expressions.
The Law has pointed them out to me, and they are the properest that can be found.—A
Lye, that has a Tendency, totally and irretrievably to ruin Mr. Hunts Character, to
destroy all Confidence in his Probity, to expose him to an infamous Punishment, and
to make him avoided as a Pest to Society.

He seems to have made it his Business to ramble about, and publish his Tale to every
Man he saw almost both in Weighmouth and Braintree. To one man He says Hunt never
lost any Money. To another He stole his Money himself. To a third he enters into a
pretended Proof of his story and says—Hunt said in Boston, on Thanksgiving Day Night,
which was before his Money was stolen as he swore to Justice Dyer, had told People
the story to which he afterwards swore. To another he is more Particular, and says
Mr. Ballard of Boston told me, the morning after Thanksgiving, that Hunt told him
of the Breach of his House and the Loss of his money the Night before.—Now this we
say is the Lye. We never told Mr. Ballard so and Mr. Ballard never told him so. And
we say it has a tendency to our Defamation and Damage. If these stories should be
believed, every Man will believe us guilty not only of a fraudulent, lying Disposition,
but of Perjury. And if the world should believe us guilty of Perjury we are undone,
for ever. We shall be dispised. We shall be detested. No man will have the least Confidence
in us. We must become Vagabonds upon Earth. I pray the Witnesses may be sworn to prove
what we say.

The Crime that is implicitly charged upon the Complainant, is Perjury. What is Perjury?
Is it not the worst of Crimes? Is it not, a open deliberate Defyance of Heaven and
Earth? Is it not a Challenge of divine Vengence, and a Contemt of all the Infamy and
Misery of [three?] of the most severe of civil Punishments? Is it not a Crime that carries with [it] the last Degree of Reproach? It does not indeed strip a Man of the Protection of
Society? We cannot, lawfully, hunt down and kill a Perjured Person. But does it not
strip us of all the Priviledges { 181 } of society? Does it not disable us to testify, as Witness on all occasions? Does it
not prevent all the World from believing and trusting us?

The Foundation of this Law, is the Tendency of such scandalous stories to the Disturbance
of the Peace. The Legislature knew the quickness and Violence of Mens Resentment.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0008-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-12-16

1760. Decr. 16th. Tuesday.

Attended the Tryal all day, between Hunt and White before Coll. Quincy, at James Bracketts.

What will be the Consequence of this Tryal? to me, to Hunt, and to White? White has
been punished, for his licentious Tittle tatle, but Hunt has gained neither Recompence
nor Credit. Benja. Thayer is enraged and Prat and Pitty [Pettee?] were enraged at me for abusing them, by asking them their Thoughts. Ben. Thayer continues
so, for aught I know, or care. I fear this unsuccessful Prosecution connected with
that of Lovel and Reed, will occasion squibbs, and injure my Reputation in Weighmouth.
However in both I am well assured I had good Cause of Action. Lovel and Reed had good
Right, tho the Justice was, I dont know what, enough to give his Judgment against
them. And stories have been propagated, zealously, industriously propagated by White,
with Design I believe to convince Mankind that Hunt had been guilty, or at least from
a vain trifling Inclination to shew his Penetration at Hunts Expence; altho the Circumstances
of suspicion against Hunt have taken such hold of Mens Minds, that no Conviction of
White would have retrieved Hunts Character at all.

It would have been much better, never to have stirred, in this Affair. The more He
stirs the worse he stinks.—A Prosecution commenced with so much Temper, pursued with
so much Resolution, then supported by so little Evidence and terminated by Agreement,
tho in his favour, yet with so small Advantage, will give occasion for Weighmouth
Tongues to wanton in obloquy, and to their sides to riot in Laughter.

Virtues, Ambition, Generosity, indulged to excess degenerate in Extravagance which
plunges headlong into Villany and folly.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0008-0007

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-12-18

1760 Decr. 18th. Thurdsday.

Yesterday spent in Weymouth, in settling the Disputes between old Thos. White and
young Isaac French. White has the Remainders of his habitual Trickish lying, cheating
Disposition, strongly working to this Day—an infinity of jesuitical Distinctions,
and mental Reservations.

He told me he never lost a Cause at Court in his Life—which James White and Mr. Whitmarsh
say is a down right Lye.

He owned to me that his Character had been that of a Knave and a Villain: and says
every Man of Wit and sense will be called a Villain.—My Principle has been, to deal
upon Honour with all men, so long as they deal upon Honour with me, but as soon as
they begin to trick me, I think I ought to trick them.

Thus every Knave thinks others, as knavish or more knavish than himself.

What an Intrenchment, is this against the Attacks of his Conscience, is this, “the
Knavery of my Neighbours, is superiour to mine.”1

An old withered, decripit Person, 87 years of Age with a Head full of all the Wiles,
and Guile and Artifice of the Infernal serpent, is really a <Phenomenon> melancholly sight. Ambition of appearing sprightly, cunning, smart, capable of outwitting
younger Men. In short I never saw that Guile and subtilty in any Man of that Age.
Father Niles has a little of that same serpentine Guile. I never felt the meaning
of the Words, Stratagem, Guile, Subtilty, Cunning, Wiles &c. that Milton applies to
the Devil [in?] his Plan to effect the Ruin of our first Parents so forcibly, as since I knew that
old Man, and his grandson Isaac, who seems to have the same subtilty, and a worse
Temper, under a total secresy, and dissembled Intention. He has a smiling face, and
a flattering Tongue with a total Concealment of his Designs, tho a devilish malignant,
fiery temper appears in his Eyes. He’s a Cassius, like Ben. Thayer. Sees thro the
Characters of Men, much further, and clearer, than ordinary, never laughs, now and
then smiles, or half smiles. Father White, with all his subtilty and Guile, may be
easily over reached by Men like him self. He is too open, too ostentatious of his
Cunning, and therefore is generally, out witted, and worsted.

Yesterdays Transaction was intended as the final Determination of all Disputes and
Concerns between Mr. White and Mr. French—that White should deliver up, or burn all
Bonds, Notes, Leases, Indentures, Covenants and Obligations whatever, and that French
on his Part should deliver up, or burn, all Indentures, Leases, obligations &c., in
his Hands. But as the Indentures and Leases were not destroyed, and some Notes in
father Whites Hands not delivered up, I fear, from French’s outrageous, and barefaced
Declaration, as soon as affairs were over, “that he had got it settled exactly as
he would have it,” and that “the Receipt did not cut off his Indentures, which would
not be in force till his Grandfathers Decease and that he would sue the re• { 183 } maining Notes, out of his Grandfathers Hands” &c., that more Difficulties will yet
arise between them. I fear too that my burning of the Arbitration Bonds, and Awards,
was a mistaken step, for they might have remained, as Evidence. However, French declared
to me, that he would surrender all his Writings, if his Grandfather would surrender
his; afterwards in the Evening, at [ . . . ].2 But he told me he did not see the Importance of those Indentures.

Five strange Characters I have had Concerns with very lately.—Josiah White, Saml.
Hunt, old Thomas White, and Isaac French. Two Fools, and two Knaves—Besides Daniel
Nightingale, a Lunatick.

French’s Joy, like that of the Devil, when he had compleated the Temptation and fall
of Man, was extravagant, but he broke out into too violent a Passion. He broke his
own seal of secresy and betrayed his villanous Designs to me. On my Resenting his
declared Intention, he grew sensible of his Error, and attempted by soothing to retrieve
it. “He was sorry he had broke out so.”—“The treatment he had suffered made him in
a Passion.”—“I raised your Temper too prodigiously.”

There is every Year, some new and astonishing scene of Vice, laid open to the Consideration
of the Public. Parson Potters Affair, with Mrs. Winchester, and other Women, is hardly
forgotten. A Minister, famous for Learning, oratory, orthodoxy, Piety and Gravity,
discovered to have the most debauched and polluted of Minds, to have pursued a series
of wanton Intrigues, with one Woman and another, to have got his Maid with Child and
all that.3—Lately Deacon Savils Affair has become public. An old Man 77 Years of Age, a Deacon,
whose chief Ambition has always been Prayer, and religious Conversation, and sacerdotal
Company, discovered to have been the most salacious, rampant, Stallion, in the Universe—rambling
all the Town over, lodging with this and that Boy and Attempting at least the Crime
of Buggery. <Thus Adultery, Buggery, Perjury, are—>

1. Thus in MS (except for closing quotation mark, which has been editorially supplied). Doubtless
JA intended to strike out the first “is this.”

2. This name is uncertain. Apparently “Creens,” perhaps intended for “Greens.”

3. Nathaniel Potter, College of New Jersey 1753, and honorary A.M., Harvard 1758, was minister at Brookline from 1755 until dismissed in June 1759. Little is said
of him in the local histories of Brookline, but the Plymouth church, which seriously
considered calling him, heard in July 1759 “some melancholy things opened with Respect
to Mr. Potters moral Charecter.” This was just in time to save “this poor Church ...
from Ruine.” In 1765 Potter took up with another adventurer, Maj. Robert Rogers, accompanied
him to England, and probably had an important hand in Rogers’ several literary productions
published at that time. With the promise of a good salary as secretary, Potter went
with Rogers to Fort Michilimackinac, but quarreled with him in 1767, and died in the
Eng• { 184 } lish Channel later that year while bringing his charges against Rogers to the British
government. (Weis, Colonial Clergy of N. E.; Plymouth Church Records, 1620–1859, N.Y., 1920–1923, 1:317–318; sources cited in
note to entry of 27 Dec. 1765, below, q.v.)

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0008-0008

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-12-18

1760. Decr. 18.

Justice Dyer says there is more Occasion for Justices than for Lawyers. Lawyers live
upon the sins of the People. If all Men were just, and honest, and pious, and Religious
&c. there would be no need of Lawyers. But Justices are necessary to keep men just
and honest and pious, and religious.—Oh sagacity!

But, it may be said with equal Truth, that all Magistrates, and all civil officers,
and all civil Government, is founded and maintained by the sins of the People. All
armies would be needless if Men were universally virtuous. Most manufacturers and
Tradesmen would be needless. Nay, some of the natural Passions and sentiments of human
Minds, would be needless upon that supposition. Resentment, e.g. which has for its
object, Wrong and Injury. No man upon that supposition would ever give another, a
just Provocation. And no just Resentment could take Place without a just Provocation.
Thus, our natural Resentments are founded on the sins of the People, as much as the
Profession of the Law, or that of Arms, or that of Divinity. In short Vice and folly
are so interwoven in all human Affairs that they could not possibly be wholly separated
from them without tearing and rending the whole system of human Nature, and state.
Nothing would remain as it is.

<I am an old Man seventy odd, and as [I] had my Education, so I have passed my whole Life in the Country>, &c.

1. This is the third entry the diarist dated 18 Dec., but since 19 Dec. 1760 fell on
a Friday, an editorial correction seems justified. JA went on with the present canceled draft in an entry conjecturally assigned to Jan. 1761 (p. 190–192, below).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0008-0010

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-12-22

1760. Decr. 22nd. Monday.

This day and Tomorrow are the last. I have but one Blank left that I can use.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0005-0008-0011

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1760-12-27

1760. Decr. 27th. Saturday.

Governor Bernards Speech to the two Houses, at the opening of the present sessions,
has several Inaccuracies in it.1 “The glorious Con• { 185 } clusion of the North American War.”—The N. American War is not yet concluded, it continues,
obstinate and bloody, with the Cherokees, and will be renewed probably, against the
french in Louisiana. However with Regard to this Province, whose Legislature, the
Governor was congratulating, it may not very improperly be called a Conclusion.

“The fair Prospect of the security of your Country being settled, upon the most sure
and lasting foundations.”—Is not this sentence filled with Tautology? The security,
being secured upon secure foundations? Emendation—“and the fair Prospect that now
Presents itself, of Tranquility, established on lasting foundations.”—But it is not
Tranquility nor safety, nor Preservation, nor Peace, nor Happiness: but it is security.
Then it is not established, fixed, placed: but it is settled: and then it is not stable,
permanent: but sure: Here are certainly Words used, mearly for sound.

“This great Contest” &c. Q.—what does he mean, the War, or the Conclusion of the War?
If the latter, Conquest should have been his Word: if the former, what follows is
not true vizt. we may date the firm Establishment of die british Empire in N. America.—From
our late successes and Acquisitions, we may date that Establishment, but not from
our Misfortunes and Losses which made no Unmemorable Part of this great Contest.

“We form these Pleasing assurances, not only from the more striking Instances of the
superiority of its Power, but also from the less obvious observation of the Improvement
of its Policy.”—Its Power, i.e. the british Empires Power. Instances i.e. Particulars
in which it has appeared. Obvious observation, has a good Meaning, but an inelegant,
inartificial sound. A Defect of Elegance, Variety, Harmony, at least.

“The improving a Country is a more pleasing Task than the defending it:”—Improving
and Defending Participles, used as substantives with the Article the before them,
will never be used by a grammarian much less by a Rhetorician. I never could bear
such Expressions, in others, and never could use them, myself, unless in Case of absolute
Necessity, where there is no substantive to express the same Idea.

“As I have consulted your Convenience in deferring calling you together untill this,
the most Leisure time of your whole Year, &c.”— “In deferring calling,” would never
have been used together, by a discerning Ear. He might have said “in deferring this
session, untill,” &c.—Your whole Year! Why yours, any more than mine or others? Ans[wer]. It is not the most Leisure time of every mans whole Year. It is the most busy time
of some Mens year.

Deacon Palmers Observation upon this speech, that “he talks like a weak honest Man,”
is childish. Tis superficial: Tis Prejudice: Tis a silly thoughtless Repetition of
what he has heard others say.

For, tho there are no Marks of Knavery, in it: there are marks of good sense I think.
Grammatical and Rhetorical Inaccuracies are by no means Proofs of Weakness, or Ignorance.
They may be found in Bacon, Lock, Newton, &c.

1. This speech by Governor Francis Bernard was delivered to the General Court at the
opening of its adjourned session, 17 Dec.; see text in Mass., House Jour., 1760–1761, p. 100–101.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0001-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-01-02

Jany. 2nd. 1760 [i.e. 1761]. Fryday.

The Representatives in their Address to the Governor, have told him that “Great Britain
is the leading and most respectable Power in the whole World.”1 —Let us examine this.—Is she the Leading Power, either in War or Negociation?—In
War? She has no Army, not more than 50 or 60 thousand Men, whereas France has a standing
Army, of 250, 000 men in Camp and in Garrison. And their officers are as gallant and
skillful, their Gunners and Engineers, the most accomplished of any in Europe. Their
Navy indeed is now inconsiderable, And our Navy alone has given us the Advantage.
But our Navy alone will not make us the leading Power. How we can be called the Leading
Power I cant see. Holland, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and all Italy has refused to
follow us, and Austria, Russia, Sweeden, and indeed almost all the states of Germany,
the Prince of Hesse excepted, have followed France. The only Power, independent Power
that has consented to follow us is Prussia, and indeed upon Recollection it seems
to me we followed Prussia too, rather than the Contrary.—Thus we are the Leading Power
without Followers.

And, if we are not the leading Power, in War, we never have been the Leading Power
in Negociation.—It is a common Place observation that the French have regained by
Treaty, all the Advantages, which we had gained by Arms. Now whether this arose from
the superior Dexterity of the french Plenipotentiaries, or from the universal Complaisance
of the other Plenipotentiaries of Europe to France and frenchmen, it equally proves
that England is not the leading Power, in Councils.

How are we the most respectable?—The most respected, I am sure, we are not!—else how
came all Europe to remain Neuters, or else take Arms against us—how came foreigners,
from all Countries, to resort to { 187 } France, to learn their Policy, Military Discipline, fortification, Manufactures, Language,
Letters, Science, Politeness &c. so much more than to England? How comes the french
Language to be studied and spoken as a polite Accomplishment, all over Europe, and
how comes all Negociations to be held in french.

And if we consider every Thing, The Religion, Government, Freedom, Navy, Merchandize,
Army, Manufactures, Policy, Arts, Sciences, Numbers of Inhabitants and their Virtues,
it seems to me, that England falls short in more and more important Particulars, than
it exceeds the Kingdom of France.

To determine the Character of “Leading and respectable,” as Dr. Savil does, from a
few Victories and successes, by which Rules he makes Charles 12th to have been in
his day, the leading and most respectable Power, and Oliver Cromwell in his, and the
K. of Prussia in this, is most ignorant and silly.

In short, “Leading and Respectable,” is not to be determined, either by the Prince,
the Policy, the Army, Navy, Arts, Science, Commerce, nor by any other national Advantage,
taken singly and abstracted from the rest. But that Power is to be denominated so,
whose Aggregate, of component Parts, is most.

1. This address was read and adopted by the House of Representatives on 23 Dec. 1760;
see text in Mass., House Jour., 1760–1761, p. 115–116.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0001-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-01-02

1760 [i.e. 1761]. Jany. 2nd. Friday.

Nathl. Bayley Administrator v. Nathll. Niles.—Plea in Abatement. Defendant lives on
the Castle,1 within the Town of Boston but is called of Braintree. It seems he was born in Braintree,
owns a House And Land in Braintree, and for about six Weeks past his Wife and family
have lived in Braintree. The Question is therefore whether his Non Residence is a
good Plea? He has not lived in Town these ten Years, but has been for all that Time,
constantly resident, and employed as a Serjeant, and a Matross, on Castle William.
His Wife and family have lived, in the Town of Dorchester, for some Years past, till
about six Weeks ago when they removed to Braintree and at the House where his Wife
and family live, the Copy of this Writ was left.—We are not the Man, that is sued
in this Writ. We are not the Defendant in this Action. Mr. Nathl. Niles, the young
Gentleman now in study with Mr. Marsh, in Preparation for Colledge, is the Man.—And
let him Answer.—For

We are called Nathl. Niles of Braintree. Now it has been adjudged, that, when a Man
is called of such a Town, the meaning is that he is { 188 } an Inhabitant of that Town, a legal Inhabitant of that Town, entituled to all the
Priviledges, and compellible to bear all the Burdens of that Town. Every Man who is
of Braintree i.e. an Inhabitant of Braintree, is to be rated by the assessors of Braintree
for his Head. But, my Client never has been rated by our Assessors, for many Years.
Suppose my Client was poor, should become a cripple or fall sick, what Town must maintain
him? Not Braintree most certainly, but Boston. And why? because he is an Inhabitant
of Boston and not of Braintree. There is a Difference between of Braintree and in
Braintree, And in Case my Client had come into this Town with his Wife and lived here
to this day, tho he could not be called of Braintree because he is no Inhabitant and
liable to be warned out every day, yet if he had been styled resident in Braintree
that would have done. And this is the style they give the Regular officers, for 3
Winters past several Regular officers have wintered in Boston. Several of these Gentlemen
have been sued, but they are never styled of Boston, but only resident in Boston.
There’s an Instance in this Town. Mr. Gliddens Wife and family, it is well known have
lived in this Town chiefly for some Years, tho not constantly, but Mr. Glidden has
not. Well now if Mr. Glidden sues any Man must he style himself of Braintree because
his Wife and family live here and he comes up, once a fortnight to lodge with her.
His Writt would abate, if he should. And I have seen several Writts, wherein he has
been concerned as Party, and he has been always styled of Boston. Other Instances
innumerable might be quoted. Coll. Brattle is a remarkable one.2 He did belong to Cambridge. He married a Wife in Boston, and lived with her there
in her House, and with her family, so long that People began to take him for a Boston
Man and they sued him, several of them sued him by the Name of Wm. Brattle of Boston.
He pleaded in Abatement of their Writts, that he was of Cambridge and not of Boston,
and he shew’d that [he] had, once or twice a Year, gone up to Cambridge with his family and stayed a month
or two. And therefore as an uninterrupted Inhabitancy is necessary to gain a settlement
in any Town and he had not Inhabited constantly in Boston, he abated their Writts,
a 10 times stronger Case than this.

The Castle Men are all considered as Inhabitants of Boston, so that No Minister will
marry a Castle Man, till a Certificate is produced that he has been published in Boston.

1. That is, on Castle Island, site of Castle William, a fortified post in Boston Harbor.

2. William Brattle, Harvard 1722, at different times a minister, physician, lawyer, and soldier, with whom JA was to carry on a newspaper dispute in 1773 over the independence of the judiciary
(Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates, 7:10–23).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0001-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-01-08

Jany. 8th. 1761.

Last Monday, had a passionate Wrangle, with Eb. Thayer, before Major Crosby. He called
me, a petty Lawyer. This I resented.

The Defendant Niles appeared by 10 o’clock, and had his Costs allowed, is:6d, for
attendance, but nothing for Travel, tho he lived 8 miles off. Upon the first Appearance
of the Defendants Daniel White, and Neh. Hayden, the Justice pronounced that they
should have no Costs, altho no Plaintiff appeared—because they did not appear by Eleven
O Clock. Now in answer to this, I say, that he never made it his Rule to allow no
Costs to Defendants, appearing after 11 when no Plaintiff appeared. He has made it
his Rule to call out Actions, when the Plaintiffs have appeared, upon the Non Appearance
of Defendants after waiting an Hour for them. And he has made it his Rule, to allow
Costs to defendants appearing at the time or within the Hour upon the Non Appearance
of the Plaintiffs, after waiting an Hour for them. But I believe, he never made it
his Rule till that day, to refuse Costs to Defendants appearing soon after the Hour
expired when no Plaintiff appeared—so that, had it been certain that these Defendants
did not appear within two Hours, he would not have been obliged by any Rule of his
own Practice to refuse them Costs. But admitting his Rule had been established and
absolute to allow no Costs to any Party not appearing within the Hour—It was not clear
in this Case, that the Hour was out. By Captn. Thayers Watch indeed and by mine, it
was after 11. But my Watch was set by Guess that morning, and by the Justices own
Dial it was not yet Eleven, and by Athertons and several other Persons Judgment of
Time, it was not yet Eleven; and some Allowance ought to be made, for the Difficulty
of the Weather and the Travelling.

But thirdly, the Justice ought not to establish any such unalterable Rule. The Law
has made Provision that the Parties shall be paid for the whole Days Attendance. And
these Defendants lived at <seven> 9 or 10 miles distance and could not therefore without great Difficulty, in that
severe Weather, and almost impracticable Travelling, have reached the Justices House,
by ten O clock:

And to refuse them Costs for Non Compliance with such a rigorous Rule, when those
suits had been commenced by Deputy Sheriffs, some of the suits vexatious, and all
the Writts abateable; after they had been compelled to ride thro Cold and snow, so
many miles, wasting their own and their Witness[es’] Time, and bearing their own Expences, { 190 } when no Plaintiff appeared and no Body for him dared to enter his Actions; was a Peice
of Oppression like that of the Bashaws in Turkey.

I am an old Man, seventy odd, and as I had my Education, so I have spent my whole
Life, a few <months> Weeks in a Year excepted, when I commonly took a Journey, in the Country. I was naturally
inquisitive, and a little too talkative, in my Youth, which Qualities have perhaps
increased with my Age, but as I remember, I used to swear at the vanity and Impertinence
of old Nestor whose Speeches I have often read formerly in Popes Homer (a Book of
which I was then, and am still very fond) I expect that younger Men will laugh at
the like Vanity and Impertinence in me, which it shall be my Care therefore in this
Paper, at least to avoid, because I would have the subject of it, candidly weighed.

Indeed, scarcely any Thing that I have observed, in the Course of a long Life, <deserves more Attention> has a greater Influence on the Religion, Moralls, Health, Property, Liberties and
Tranquility of the World. I mean public Houses.

The Tempers, and Passions, The Prophaneness and brutal Behaviour inspired by the low
sort of Company that frequents such Houses, and by the Liquors they drink there; are
not very compatible with the pure and undefiled Religion of Jesus, that Religion whose
first Principle is to renounce all filthiness and superfluity of Naughtiness. That
Inattention to the public ordinances of Religion as well as to private Devotion which
I have Reasons to think is prevalent, in these Times is no unnatural Consequence,
of the very generall Resort, to these licentious Houses.

The plentiful Use of spirituous Liquors, begins with producing a strange Confusion
of Mind, appetite and Passions, too violent for the Government of Reason; proceeds
to involve Men in Debt, and of Consequence, in Lying, cheating, stealing, and sometimes
in greater Crimes; and ends in a total, and incurable Dissolution of Manners.

The Effects of such Intemperance upon Health are of two Kinds. It either throws them
into some acute and inflammatory fever, which carries them from the Midst of their
Vices and their follies, the Mischiefs they do and the <Miseries> Distresses they suffer, at once into their Graves, or else it leads them by insensible
Degrees, thro all the Gloom and Languor of a Chronical Distemper, despized by many,
hated by more and [pitied?] by a few, to a long expected, and desired { 191 } death. Thousands, and thousands, are every Year expiring in Europe, and proportionable
Numbers in America, the miserable Victims of their own Imprudence, and the ill Policy
of Rulers in permitting the Causes of their Ruin to exist. Allured by the smell of
these infernal Liquors, like the Ghosts, in Romances, allured by the scent of human
Blood, they resort to these Houses, waste their Time, their strength and their Money,
which ought to be employed in the Management of their own Affairs and families, till
by degrees, much expended, little earned, they contract Habits of Calesness,2 Idleness, and Intemperance; their Creditors demand, they promise to pay but fail;
Writts issue, Charges are multiplied, for the Maintenance of others as idle as themselves,
and Executions strip them of all they have, and cast their miserable Bodies into loathsome
Prisons.

The Number of these Houses have been lately so much augmented, and the fortunes of
their owners so much increased, that an Artful Man has little else to do, but secure
the favour of Taverners, in order to secure the suffrages of the Rabbles that attend
these Houses, which in many Towns within my observation makes a very large, perhaps
the largest Number of Voters. The Consequence is that these offices and Elections,
which all the wisest Legislators of the world, in humble Imitation of God and Nature
have alloted to Probity and Understanding, may in Time, I dare not say have already
become the Gratuity of Tiplers, for Dramms3 and slops! Good God! where are the Rights of English Men! where is the spirit, that
once exalted the souls of Britons and emboldened their [faces?] to look even Princes and Monarchs in the face. But perhaps I am too anxious, and
In truth I must own I [so] revere the true Constitution of our Government, founded in those great Principles,
that accomplished in a great Antiquity the Destruction of Troy, that extended in a
later Period the Bounds of the Roman Empire and that produced in the English History,
so many events for the Universe to admire, that I cant think of its evaporating and
passing from [the] human Breast with Phlip4 and Rum, of which Event there is great Danger, without Rage.

Last of all, innumerable Violations of the Peace and order of society, are every Day
occurring, that spring originally from the same sources. Quarrells, Boxing, Duels,
oaths, Curses, affrays and Riots, are daily hatching from Eggs and Spawns, deposited
in the same Nests: in short these Houses, like so many Boxes of Pandora, are sending
forth every day innumerable Plagues of every kind, natural, moral and political, that
increase and multiply fast enough to lay waste in a little While the whole World.

How different is this, from the state of Things in my Youth. Instead of an unmanly
Retreat to the Chimny Corner of a Tavern, the young fellows of my Age were out in
the Air, improving their strength and Activity, by Wrestling, running, leaping, lifting,
and the like vigorous Diversions, and when satisfyed with these, resorted every one
to his Mistress or his Wife. Love, that divine Passion, which Nature has implanted
for the Renovation of the species, and the greatest solace of our Lives: virtuous
Love, I mean, from whence the greatest Part of human Happiness originates, and which
these modern seminaries have almost extinguished or at least changed into filthiness
and brutal Debauch, was then considered as God intended it, both a Duty of our Nature
and the greatest source of our Bliss. But it is melancholly to think that the present
Prevalent Debauchery, which tends so much to shorten the Lives of the present Generation,
tends also, to prevent the Propagation of a succeeding one. I really am afraid that
in another Century, unless some wise Precaution should intervene, a Man of my Age
will be the rarest Phenomenon.

I should be called talkative indeed if I should attempt to develope the Causes of
that strange Multiplication of such Houses, that is lately grown up. But I fear, that
some select Men are induced by a foolish Complaisance, and others by Designs of Ambition
to give their Approbation to too many Persons who are improper, and perhaps to too
many that are proper for that Trust. I am afraid that some Justices may be induced
by lucrative Motives, by mercantile Principles to augment the Manufactory or the Importation
of Rum or Mollosus, without Attending to the other Consequences, which are plainly
pernicious.

But let this Paper be considered as a Warning from one who has seen better days, to
Magistrates to suppress, rather than increase within their Department—to select men
to discountenance Pretenders rather than encourage [them] in their sphere—to Parents and Masters, to restrain their Children And servants from
frequenting. And in short let every Man endeavour to keep one, from suffering any
Injury from them, in any Respect.

I was too incautious, and unartful in my Proceeding, but Practice makes perfect. I
should have first taken all the summonses, into my own Hand, or Powers of attorney
from the Defendants. Then I should have moved that the sheriff should be directed
to return his Writts, that against White and that against Hayden. Then I should have
drawn a complaint, on each of them, and filed them all. Then I should have desired
the Justice to make a Record of his Judgment. This would { 193 } have been regular, masterly Management, but I had no Time to think and prepare.

This is the third Time I have been before Majr. Crosbey with Thayer. The first time,
he was [ . . . ] for John Spear. That Action was demolished. The next time he appeared for Nathan
Spear against Eph. Hunt and John Vinton. Those Actions were demolished. The last time
he appeared for Bayley, against Niles, White, Hayden, &c. These Actions were all demolished.
Thus I have come off, pretty triumphantly every time, and he pretty foolishly. Yet
I have managed none of these Cases, in the most masterly manner. I see several Inadvertent
Mistakes, and omissions. But I grow more expert, less diffident &c. I feel my own
strength. I see the complacent Countenances of the Crowd, and I see the respectful
face of the Justice, and the fearful faces of Petty foggers, more than I did.

You remember that I wrote you a new Years Address, about two Years since, containing
some few Articles of Advice that I then thought would pass with Propriety, considering
the Relation between us, from me to you. You are at least two Years older, than you
were then, and from a careful observation of your Conduct, I have found few Occasions
of Blame, and from your Conversation, and a frequent Inspection of your Compositions,
I have reason to think your time has been in general, and in Comparison of the rest
of your own sex, not ill improved.

But there are numberless Particulars that I had then no Leisure to discuss, and which
some Persons of our sex but more of yours think not worthy to discuss, that will fill
the remainder of this Letter and be I hope no unacceptable Present, for the Year 1761.

The first relate to the Delicacy of your own Persons and Houses. It has been the constant
observation of foreigners who have lived in England, that the british Ladies are the
least careful, to use no harder term, in this Respect than any Ladies, in Christendom.
The Brightness of Plate and Dishes, floors, and every other Thing in a House even
in a Kitchen, has been always observed by Travellers, even into Holland, where the
enormous sizes of the Ladies, and their consequent sloth and Heavyness, one would
think would incline them to another extreme. The same Nicety is observed in Italy,
France and elsewhere, but the very general Complaint of british Ladies is that their
Teeth, Necks, Hair, Perspiration and Respiration, Kichens and even Parlors { 194 } are no cleaner nor sweeter than they should be. And the same ground of Complaint is
in America. For my own Part, tho not very attentive to my own Person, nothing is so
disgustful and loathsome to me, and almost all our sex are of my mind, as this Negligence.
My own Daughters, whenever they shall grow to Years of Discretion, I am determined
to throw into a great Kettle and Boil till they are clean, If I ever find them half
so nasty as I have seen some. That you may gain proper sentiments on this Head, and
reduce them most religiously to Practice, I recommend to your careful Reading, the
Works of Dr. Swift and Dr. Shybear [Shebbeare], especially the former, and let me warn you against any Prejudice to him, or his
sentiments on Account of that open Defyance and Contempt in which he held your sex.

2. The next Article is that of Dress. It may be just[ly] considered, as the Principal Design of a young Lady from her Birth to her Marriage,
to procure and prepare herself for a worthy Companion in Life. This I believe is modestly
enough expressed. Now the finest face, and shape, that ever Nature formed, would be
insufficient to attract and fix the Eye of a Gentleman without some Assistance and
Decoration of Dress. And I believe an handsome shoe, well judged Variety of Colours,
in Linnen, Laces &c., and even the Rustling of silks has determined as many Matches
as any natural features, or Proportions or Motions. Hes a fool that is determined
wholly by either or by both, but even a wise man will take all these, as well as others
less,6 into Consideration.

I cannot be supposed to be master of the whole Art of Dress, nor to give Rules for
your Conduct of it. I only say study it, even of your selves. Study it even as a science,
and take in Hogarths mathematicks to your Aid.7

3. The 3d is [a] sense of Elegance. This may perhaps include both the former, but I mean in this Place
such a Disposition of the Affairs of a family, such a management of an Entertainment,
and such a judicious——[sentence unfinished]

The 4th is Behaviour in mixed Companies. I would not have you Pedants in Greek and
Latin nor the Depths of science, nor yet over fond to talk upon any Thing. When your
opinion is asked, give it. When you know any Thing, that the Company are at a loss
for, disclose it. But what I mean is this. Attend to the Conversation of Gentlemen
even when News, Politicks, Morals, Oeconomy, nay even when Literature and science
but beyond the fathom of your Line make the subject: do not attempt to turn the Conversation
to Billy’s Prattle—To the { 195 } Doggs, or Negroes or Catts, or to any little contemptible tittle tattle of your own.

5thly. Observations of Mankind, or what is called the World. As the House is your
Theatre of Action, an Attentive Observation of Domestic Characters should be your
Rule. You are in all Probability in some future Part of your Life, to have Husbands.
Remark carefully the Behaviour of other Wifes, wherever you go, to their Husbands,
but distinguish well between Propriety of Behaviour and the Contrary. You will probably
some time or other have Children. Remark then every Mothers Management of her Children,
in their Education, Morals, Behaviour, Dress, Diet &c., with the same Distinction.

You may by a Course of Reflection on Instances of this sort among Gentle and simple
form to yourselves from reason and Experience, a System of Rules that may one day
produce an Hero or a Legislator, a great Statesman or Divine or some other great Character
that may do Honour to the World—the Highest Pinacle of Glory to which a Woman can
in Modesty aspire.

You will also act hereafter as Mistresses. Let your Attention therefore be fixed on
the Behaviour of servants and their Treatment from their Masters and Mistresses.

In short, domestic Morality ought to be your principal study, and you ought not to
suffer one Character in the Drama of a family, to be unexamined.

6thly. Under this Head of Conversation with the World falls naturally enough that
into which you must if you are not singular, and you will, if you pursue your own
Inclinations, sometimes, fall—Conversation with some Person of the other Sex alone:
and this before Marriage And even Courtship. Our illustrious young Monarck, indeed,
will probably be married by Proxy to some Princess abroad, that he never saw: and
this is for Reasons of State, no doubt necessary: Yet it is thought an Hardship, and
the prevailing Custom of the World, for this Reason perhaps, allows [a] Prince his Mistress as an alleviation.

And it seems, by what I see and hear, that Persons of Rank and figure even in this
Province, are desirous that their Daughters should be married to Men who never saw
them, by their prevailing Practice of concealing them from all Males, till a formal
Courtship is opened. This Practice must proceed either from deplorable folly, an Awkward
Imitation of Majesty, or else from a Consciousness of their Daughters futility and
a Dread to expose them.

But be it remembered that no Man that is free and can think, will rush blindfold,
into the Arms of any such Ladies, who, tho it is possible { 196 } they may prove Angells of Light, may yet more probably turn out Haggs of Hell.

You must therefore associate yourselves in some good Degree, and under certain Guards
and Restraints, even privately with young fellows. And, tho Discretion must be used,
and Caution, yet on [considering]8 the whole of the Arguments on each side, I cannot wholly disapprove of Bundling.

Lest a maiden Nicety should prevent the Correspondence, proposed the last Week, I
have taken my Pen to open it, upon the lofty subject of Law. We shall be called silly,
and tasteless &c. for ought I know, or care. For let the smart sayings of the gay,
and the grave Satyrs, even of the wise and learned be what they will, I have for my
own Part, and I thank God for it, no bad Opinion of the Law, either as a science,
or a Profession.

Why the minute Arteries and Tendons of the human Body, the organization of the human
Voice, and mouth, and numberless other subjects of the like sort should be thought
worthy of the Attention of a liberal Mind; and the no less Wonderful and much more
important combination of Passions, Appetites, Affections, in the human Breast that
operate in human society, too futile, or too disagreable, for a wise Mans Examination,
I cannot imagine.—Nay if we proceed to the Positive Institutions of the Law, I cannot
think them so extreamly dull, uncouth, and unentertaining as you and I have heard
them represented, by some whom we love and honour.

Multitudes of needless Matters and some that are nonsensical, it must be confessed
have in the Course of Ages, crept into the Law. But I beg to know, what Art or Science
can be found in the whole Circle, that has not been taught by silly, senseless, Pedants,
and is not stuffed with their Crudities and Jargon.

The Man who intends to become skilful in any science, must be content to study such
Authors as have written upon it. No Man will be an adept in Grammar or Rhetoric, or
Poetry, or Music or Architecture, without labouring thro a vast deal of Nonsense,
and Impertinence—in short, Nonsense seems an unalienable Property of human Affairs.
And it is as idle to expect, that any Artist10 should write well upon any subject, without intermingling some Proportion of it,
as it is to expect, that a rapid Torrent should descend from the Mountains without
washing some Dirt and Earth along with it.

But if the Grandeur and Importance of a subject, has any share in { 197 } the Pleasure it communicates, I am sure the Law has by far the Advantage of most other
sciences.

Nothing less than the Preservation of the Health and Properties, Lives and Tranquility,
Moralls and Liberties of Millions of the human species, is the object and Designs
of the Law, and a Comparison of several Constitutions of Government, invented for
those Purposes, an Examination of the great Causes of their Danger, as well as those
of their safety, must be as Agreable an Employment as can exercise the Mind.

But it is a science that comprises a Multitude. And great Industry, as well as many
Helps are needful, to subdue it.

And in truth I do not know a more agreable Help, than the Correspondence of a Friend.
Exchange of observations—Proposing Difficulties—stating Cases—repeating Arguments—examining
sophisms—will both arouse and support our Ambition, and wear by easy Degrees, a system
of Law into the Mind.

The Plan, that I would propose then is this—for you to write me, a Report of any Case
you hear argued before the Courts of Admiralty, Court of Probate, Governor and Council,
Court of Sessions, Justice of the Peace &c. that you think curious. Propose Questions,
for Examination, and write me Answers, to Letters from me on all the foregoing subjects.

And if we will secrete each others Letters, we shall at least avoid the Ridicule of
others. But if we should be detected, we can say that Tully and Atticus held some
such Correspondence before, that never raised a Laugh in the World. And if we say
this we must run off to avoid the Reply, of a Pigs turd to a Pine Apple.

Neal v. Spear. Plea in Abatement. Defendant is a Yeoman, but not a Gentleman, as styled
in the Writ.11

<This Exception has an Air of Humility, that may be suspected to be feigned.>

This Exception, it must be owned has not a very honourable Air, but if the Circumstances
of this Action, are considered, the Defendant will not be blamed.

<My Client is a very Poor Man, but happened to be a Bondsman for Brackett, to the Plaintiff
who is rich and in no Want of the Money.>

My Client was bound to this Plaintiff, for Bracket in his Life time, in this Obligation.
Bracket died, and this Plaintiff Neal brot his Action last Term against the Administratrix
on Bracketts Estate, and that Action is now pending in this Court: But Bracketts Estate
proves in• { 198 } solvent: and now Neal has brot this Action against a poor Bondsman. My Client is very
poor, and unable to pay this Money, and therefore will be excused for taking all legal
Advantages, till he can have some assistance from Bracketts Estate, to pay it.

And, for my own Part I had a further, and a stronger Reason for not discouraging my
Client which was this. This Writ was drawn by a Deputy Sheriff, or at least by somebody
in the service and Employment of that Deputy Sheriff: and against such Writts your
Honours will no doubt commend me for taking all legal Advantages.

And this Exception is, in law fatal. If we are obliged to give any Additions to Parties
we should be obliged to give the Right and not call Esquires Labourers, and Labourers
Esquires.

If it is of any Consequence to society that Ranks and subordination should be established
in it, it is of Consequence that the Titles denoting those Ranks should not be confounded.
Now there are no two Titles more distinct from each other than Yeoman and Gentleman.
The Yeomanry and Gentry of England is the most ancient and universal of all Divisions
of the People.

Now the present Defendant is not a Gentleman in any Respect, neither by Birth, Education,
Office, Reputation or Employment: and indeed I have no Reason to think him one in
Thought, Word, or Deed. He spring[s] from ordinary Parents, he can scarcely write his Name, his Business is Boating, he
never had any Commissions, and therefore to call him Gentlemen is an arrant Prostitution
of the Title, and ought to abate the Writ.

1. Some of the long series of undated and more or less detached entries that follow may
extend into February, since the next dated entry in D/JA/6 is that of 9 Feb. 1761. The draft of an essay on the evils of licensed houses, which begins the series,
was obviously intended for a newspaper, but no printing has been found. See entry
of 29 May 1760, above, and note there.

2. Thus in MS; seemingly a hybrid of “carelessness” and “callousness.”

9. Peter Chardon, on whom see the entry of 11 Oct. 1758, above, and note 3 there. Except for the present draft, no letters between JA and Chardon have been found.

10. CFA reads “Author,” which may have been what JA meant, though he did not write it.

11. For the origin of this case, in which JA served as counsel for the defendant, see entry of 9 Oct. 1760, above, and note. In a fragmentary record of actions, { 199 } 1761–1763, JA made this notation: “Jo Neal v Nathan Spear. Plea in abatement, which prevailed—recd.
Costs of the Constable” (MS, Goodspeed’s Book Shop, Boston, 1957).

Mr. Gridley about 15 months since, advised me to read an Institute of the Cannon Law—and
that Advice lay broiling in my Head, till last Week, when I borrowed the Book.

I am very glad, that he gave, and I took, the Advice, for it will explain many Things
in Ecclesiastical History, and open that system of fraud, Bigotry, Nonsense, Impudence,
and Superstition, on which the Papal Usurpations are founded, besides increasing my
skill in the latin Tongue, and my Acquaintance with civil Law, for in many Respects
the Cannon Law is grafted on the civil.

3. This edition of the Corpus Juris Canonici was published at Leon, 1661, and the first volume, bearing the autographs of both
Gridley and JA, survives among JA’s books in the Boston Public Library (Catalogue of JA’s Library, p. 64). Except on the titlepage the name of the author of the “Institutiones” appears
as Johannes Paulus Lancelottus, a well-known legal scholar of Perugia.

1. This and the following entry (the first of two dated 9 Feb.) also derive from D/JA/4, JA’s journal of studies, which contains no further entries until 20 June, when JA determined to resume reading Lancelotti’s work on canon law. Errors in JA’s transcription of Lancelotti’s Latin have not been corrected.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0002-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-02-09

1761 Monday. Feby. 9th.

This morning, as I lay abed, I recollected my last Weeks Work. I find I was extreamly
diligent, constantly in my Chamber, Spent no Evenings abroad, not more than one at
the Drs. Have taken no Walks, never on Horseback the whole Week, excepting once, which
was on Tuesday, when I went to Boston. Yet how has this Retirement, and solitude been
spent? In too much Rambling and Straggling from one Book to another, from the Corpus
Juris Canonici, to Bolingbroke, from him to Pope, from him to Addison, from him to
Yoricks sermons, &c. In fine, the whole Week, and all my Diligence has been lost,
for want of observing De Wits Maxim, “one Thing at once.” This Reflection raised a
Determination to reassume the Corpus Juris, or Rather Lancelots Institutes, read nothing
else, and think of nothing else—till sometime.

This Institute is a curious Monument of Priestly Ambition, Avarice and subtlety. Tis
a system of sacerdotal Guile.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0002-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-02-09

1761. Feb. 9th.

His Majesty has declared him self, by his Speech to his Parliament to be a Man of
Piety, and Candor in Religion, a friend of Liberty, and Property in Government, and
a Patron of Merit.1

“The Blessing of Heaven, I devoutly emplore”—“as the surest Foundation of the whole,
(i.e. the Loyalty and affection of his People, his Resolution to strengthen the Constitution,
the civil &c. Rights of his subjects and the Prerogatives of his Crown &c.) and the
best Means to draw down the divine favour on my Reign, it is my fixed Purpose to countenance
and encourage true Religion and Virtue.”— These are Proofs of his Piety.

He promises to patronize Religion, Virtue, the british Name and Constitution, in Church
and state, the subjects Rights, Liberty, Com• { 201 } merce, military Merit.—These are sentiments worthy of a King—a Patriot King.

1. George III became king of England 25 Oct. 1760. His first speech to Parliament, 18
Nov., contained the sentence “Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name
of Briton,” which, together with other sentiments of the same kind quoted (somewhat
inaccurately) by JA, for a time endeared him to his subjects both at home and overseas. Text in Ann. Register for 1760, p. 248–250.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0003-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-03-03

March 3d. 1761.

Mem. To enquire of Tufts, Gould, Whitmarsh, Hunts, Whites, &c. about their Method
of mending High Ways by a Rate.

And to enquire at Worcester, whenever I shall get there of Chanlers, Putnam, Willard,
Paine, Swan &c. about their Method. They mended their Ways by a Rate, I am sure.1

Weymouth mends her Ways by a Rate. Each Man is rated so much, and a Days Work is estimated
at so much, an Horse, a Cart, Yoke of oxen &c. at so much, so each Man has his Choice,
to pay his Money or to work it out.—I did not think to ask What sum they expend yearly
to mend Ways.

Quaere. How they mend their Ways, Streets, Lanes, Alleys &c. in Boston. Whether by
a Rate. Is not the Town taxed for Pavement of streets &c. Q. Whether they ever permit
those who choose it to work it out themselves.

1. According to his Autobiography, JA was this month nominated in town meeting, or perhaps only proposed for nomination
by his friend and neighbor Elisha Savil, for his first town office, that of surveyor
of highways. The usually reliable Braintree Town Records do not record his nomination or election at the annual meeting of the town on 3 March
1761 (p. 377) Either this is an error of omission, or else the account in his Autobiography
telescopes JA’s very early interest in reforming the method of financing highway repairs and his
later service (1764–1765) both as a member of a town committee to report a plan for
“mending the Ways ... by a Tax” and as an assiduous builder of bridges and highways
in the town. See Braintree Town Records, p. 395–400; also entry of 21 March, below.

2. The following two paragraphs are in a different ink and were probably written later
than those that precede.

March 12th. 1761. Another Earthquake happened which may perhaps enable us to determine,
whereabouts these Earthquakes orig• { 202 } inate, and what Course they take, for as all Canada is now in English hands, we may
have Accounts from Montreal, Quebeck, Oswego, and the several Places upon the River
St. Lawrence, at what time this Earthquake happened, its Direction and Degree of Violence.

1. At foot of p. 16 in JA’s copy of John Winthrop’s Lecture of 1755 (in Boston Public Library; see other marginalia by JA in this copy, following the entry of 5? Dec. 1758, above). At this point in his lecture
Winthrop was reporting such scanty data as were available on the direction of movement
of earlier earthquakes in America. On the back of the titlepage of his copy JA recorded, in a separate note, that the earthquake of 12 March 1761 occurred about
2:30 A.M., “resembling ’tho not quite equalling that which gave Occasion to this Discourse,
in Violence, or Duration.”

Vid. 6th. Wm. & M. C. 5. Page 60.—Charter Page 6th &c. from Index to Index. All Lands
&c. which any Body politick, or Corporate, Towns, Colledges or Schools, do hold &c.
by or under any Grant by any general Court, or by any other lawful Right or Title
whatsoever; shall be by such Towns, Colledges or Schools, their respective Heirs,
successors and assigns forever [hereafter held and enjoyed],2 according to the Purport and Intent of such respective Grant, &c., not withstanding
any Want of form.

Now in the Weymouth Case, there is a Deed to a Committee of the Town of Weymouth for
the use of the Ministry, &c. and for a convenient settlement of Housing and Lands,
for the Ministry, and for no other Use, Intent or Purpose whatsoever. Now I believe
it must be agreed that that Committee and their Grant had no Intent or Design, of
any thing but that the present Incumbent and his successors should enjoy that House
and Land forever. And, it cant be thought that Either Party to that deed entertained
a Thought of dividing that House and Land among 50 ministers, that shall happen to
settle within the Borders of that Town, tho they may be Churchmen, Anabaptists, Quakers,
Separatists, for every one of these sects, have a Minister who may be as well called
one of the Ministry of Weymouth as Mr. Bayley can.3

1. First entry in D/JA/7, a “paper book” without cover, stitching, or docketing.

3. James Bayley, Harvard 1719, was minister of the second or south parish of Weymouth from 1723, when Weymouth
was divided into North and South Precincts, until his death in 1766. A dispute went
on for many years over the interests of the two precincts in the original parsonage
property. (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates, 6:293–294; Weymouth Hist. Soc., History of Weymouth, 1923, 1:233–236.)

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0003-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-03-21

March 21st. 1761.

Memorandum. To enquire more particularly into the Practice in Weymouth—how they estimate
a Days Work for a Man, Horse, Yoke of oxen, Carts, Tools, Pickaxes, Spades, shovells
&c—how much Money or what a sum they assess upon the whole Town, annually, to amend
their Ways?—whether the assessment is committed to the surveyor, of all within his
District, &c.

Enquire, too, at Boston of Cunningham, how they pave and repair the Pavements of their
great Streets, and Lanes and Alleys &c— whether poor People are left at their Election
to work or to pay? and how they apportion their assessment? But I presume it is not
according to the Polls Tax but in Proportion to the Province Tax, or Town and County.
So that rich Men may contribute in Proportion to their Wealth, to repairing, as they
contribute most by their Equipages &c. to the wearing and spoiling the high Ways.

But a Tax upon the Poles, and real and Personal Estates of the Town will not bring
the burthen to Equality. We will suppose that John Ruggles and Caleb Hubbard are rated
equally for Heads, and real and personal Estates. Caleb Hubbard Carts down £1000 Worth
of Wood and Timber to the Landing Places, and so reaps three or £400 a Year Profit
by improving the Ways; and by his heavy Loads, and Wheels, he breaks and cutts and
crushes the Ways to Pieces. But Mr. Ruggles on the other Hand, confines himself to
his farm and [Canoe?] He neither receives Benefit from any High ways, or does any Damage to them, further
than riding to Meeting on Sundays, and Town Meetings. Now what Reason, what Propriety
can there be in taxing Ruggles and Hubbard equally to the high ways. One gets his
living by ruining the Ways, the other neither gets a farthing by them nor does them
a farthing Damage.

The Power of a Town. The Proviso in the 11th of George Chaptr. 4th. That this Act
shall not extend to the preventing or altering the Practice in any Town of defraying
the Charge of repairing or amending the High Ways by a Rate or Tax, or any other Method
they have or shall agree upon. The Words “agreed upon,” in this Proviso, I presume,
signify “determined by the major Part of the Voters,” for the same Words “agreed upon”
are used, in several other Acts, where their meaning must be so. Thus 6th. W. & M.
C. 5, the Act to enable Towns, Villages, Proprietors in common and undivided Lands
to sue and be sued.

I am an old Man turned of seventy. When I was young my common amuzement was Reading.
I had some Engagements in Business, and was no Enemy to innocent Pleasure. But as
my Circumstances were easy, I gave a greater Indulgence to my Curiosity of conversing
largely with the World than most Persons of my Age, and Rank. In this Course of Life,
I soon found that human Nature, the Dignity of which I heard extolled by some, and
debased by others, was far from deserving that Reverence and Admiration, which is
due to great Virtue and Intelligence. I found as I thought in that day a Multitude
of People, who suffered themselves to be caught by hooks and snares covered over with
such Bait, as would not have imposed even on fishes and Birds: and I found as I thought
a few others, the Anglers of that Day whose constant Attention and Pursuit was to
allure and take that Multitude. The first Instances of this sort that fell under my
observation raised my Compassion and Indignation alternately. I pittyd poor deluded
simplicity on one hand, and I raged against Cruelty and Wickedness on the other, and
could not but think, that to rescue the Lamb from the Jaws of the Wolf would be a
noble Adventure. But on further Consideration the Design seemed impracticable. The
Attempt was odious. The Knaves would arise in a Combination to ruin the Reformer and
the fools would be managed in no other Way than that of their Appetites and Passions.
For this Reason and to avoid the pungent Misery of a disappointed, despized Patriot,
I determined to make a total alteration in the Course and Nature of my Ideas and sentiments.
Whenever I heard or saw an Instance of atrocious Treachery, fraud, Hypocrisy, Injustice,
or Cruelty, the common Effects of excessive Ambition, Avarice and Lust, instead of
indulging the sentiments of Nature, which I found were a Resentment bordering on Rage,
I resolved instantly to set up a Laugh and make my self merry: whenever I saw a simple
deluded Creature brot by the Craft of others to brutal Debauchery, sickness, Cold,
Hunger, Prison, Whipping Post, Pillory or Gallows, instead of indulging sympathy and
feeling, I set my self to laughing. I must own I found a good deal of Difficulty to
command my self at first, in this bold Attempt to alter the whole system of Morality:
and in spight of my Attention, a flash of Vengeance, or a Thril of Pitty, would sometimes
escape me, before I could bring my Muscles into a risible Posture.

But by long Practice I have at last obtained a settled Habit of making my self merry
at all the Wickedness and Misery of the World. And the Causes of Ridicule have been
every Hour increasing and multiplying { 205 } from the 25th Year of my Age, when I first attempted the alteration of my Mind, to
the present Hour. And now in spight of all the Infirmities of old Age I am the most
tittering, giggling Mortal you ever saw.

But the amplest source of my merriment, thru the whole Course of my Life has been
the affair of English Priviledges, British Liberty and all that.

I have heard Men every Day for fifty Years boasting, “our Constitution is the finest
under heaven. We are governed by our own Laws. No Tyrant can Lord it over us. The
King is as accountable for his Conduct as the subject. No Government that ever existed,
was so essentially free. Every Man is his own Monarch. His Will, or the Will of his
Agent, and no other can bind him.” All these gallant, blustering speeches I have heard
in Words—and I never failed to raise a Horse laugh. For observe the pleasant course
of these Things. The few who have real Honour, Temperance, and Understanding, who
are desirous of getting their Bread and Paying their Debts by their own Industry,
apply their Attention to their own Business, and leave the Affairs of Towns and Provinces
to others. But a young fellow, who happens to be by Nature or by habit indolent, and
perhaps profligate, begins by laying schemes by himself or his Friends, to live and
get Money without Labour or Care. His first step is to procure a Deputation from some
sheriff. By the Help of Writts and Executions, and drawing Writts, or employing some
Child to draw them, for a share, 1/3 or 1/4 of the fee, then serving them, and Executions,
carrying Tales and Intelligence from one Party to the other, then settling Disputes,
vastly compassionating the Party, by taking twice lawful fees, they wheedle themselves
into some Connections with the People, and considerable sums of Money into their own
Pocketts.

They presently grow capable Men very expert at Calculations, and well acquainted with
the real and personal Estates of the Town and so very fit for select Men, and after
2 or 3 Years opposition from the most virtuous and independent Part of a Town they
obtain an Election. After this his Reputation increases very fast. He becomes, to
those not already grappled to his Interest by fear or affection, very assiduous and
obliging. And when the season of the Year approaches, a swarm of Candidates for Approbation
to keep Taverns or Dram shops, surround him, for his favour. For one he will use his
Utmost Interest. For another, he really thinks there is Occasion for a Public House
where he lives. For a Third his Circumstances are so needy he really thinks he ought
to be assisted. For a 4th. he is so unable to work, that he must be assisted, and
to a fifth, He likes it very well, for he thinks, { 206 } the more there are the better, the more obliging they will be and the cheaper they
will sell.

Taverns and Dram shops are therefore placed in every Corner of the Town, where poor
Mankind, allured by the smell of Brandy And Rum, resort, and carouse: waste their
Time, spend their Money, run in Debt to Tavern and others, grow attached to the Taverner
who is attached to his Patron both by Gratitude and Expectation. The Hero of this
Romance, is presently extolled as a public Blessing, as the most useful Man in Town,
as a very understanding and [civil?] Man, and is at the next May Meeting set up for a Candidate as Representative. The
same Body of wealthy and virtuous Persons, who opposed the first step of his Exaltation,
are still resolute to oppose the second, and for the first few Years, he fails. But,
by Assiduity and Impudence, by extending and fortifying the Parts of the same system,
he increases his Interest, and the virtuous few begin to dread the Consequences, they
resolve not to be present and wittnesses of the Disgrace of the Town. They stay at
home, and the News is brought them that the Person they despized, and &c. has obtained
his Election.

In this manner Men, who are totally ignorant of all Law human and divine, natural,
civil, ecclesiastical and common, are employed to make Laws for their Country, while
others, who have been led by their Education to search to the Bottom of human Nature,
and to examine the Effect of all Laws upon human affairs [sentence unfinished]

1. No contemporary printing of this draft of a newspaper communication has been found.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0004-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-04-03

April 3d. 1761.

Z.1 tells me, that Jona. Rawson is malicious and cruel as well as conceited. He spights
Edd. Quincy and his whole Family. He says that the whole family was prodigal and extravagant,
and that he borrowed Money and bought Goods upon Credit, but two days before he housed
himself, when he knew that he never should pay, which was no better than Stealing.—Tis
fraud. Tis Cheating, Tis Knavery, Tis Villany.— Oh he longs to see Quincys Daughters
out at service. It would please him to see them, washing and serving Dishes, Washing
Clothes, &c. Why should not they work as well as Mrs. Liddy and I? We are more honourably
descended than they!—He longs to hear that Milton select men have warned him out of
that Town. He himself was very urgent to have young Edd. warned out of Braintree,
when he first came to live with his Father, but never could get a Majority of the
select men of his Mind. He hopes that the Church in Milton will refuse him their { 207 } Communion. He hears that some Members are uneasy and talk of objecting to his partaking
there, and he wishes they would. He was extremely glad to hear, that Mr. Quincy failed
of getting Clerk of the General Court. He heard he was a Candidate, and disappointed,
and was rejoiced at it. A fine story, that he who wanted discretion to manage his
own private Affairs, who rushed headlong to Bankruptcy and Destruction should be intrusted
with public affairs. That he who would lye and Cheat, at such a Rate, should stand
in public Place.

Thus he seems to wish that poor Mr. Quincy should be excluded from all public Trust,
that he should be expelled from any Town that [he] should move into, be excommunicated from the Church, brought to beg his Bread or
be maintained by the Town, and his Daughters <bound out> sent out to service as Kitchen Maids. This is Malice, Tis Rage, Tis Cruelty, ’Tis
Persecution. Tis Hell and the Devil—and by all Probability the Provocation to this
Excess of Malevolence, which would strip them of all the means of life temporal and
eternal, is a Loss of about forty shillings old Tenor by Mr. Quincy, some way or another.
These are dreadful sentiments. This is a woful Temper.

He, and his Brother Josiah, and all the rest of the Family, are very proud of their
Descent from Mr. Rawson, an ancient secretary of this Province. Secretary Rawson was
his great Grandfather. His father was a tippling, silly old fellow like David Bass,
and if his Grandfather was of a like Character, the Dishonour of descending from such
a father and Grandfather must have taken away all the Honour of descending from an
honorable great Grand father.

Tis vain and mean to esteem oneself for his Ancestors Merit. But he is very avaricious,
and very ambitious and excessively vain. Vain of his Descent, his Estate, his Knowledge,
his sense, his public Employments, that of Select Man, that of Commissioner of Bankruptcy
&c., and of his public Capacity and spirit,—ambitious of public Trust as a select
Man, a Representative, a Commissioner &c. And besides all these, he is brutally uncivil
and rude in Company. He is an impetuous bauler, a rough, unpolished, ill bred Clown
and Coxcomb. These are the Properties of one of the favourites of Braintree.2

Is Lawrence to be Styled a Yeoman? or not. For the Negative these Things are to be
considered.—1St. Bayley in his Dictionary, defines Yeomen to be the first Degrees
of the Commons, Freeholders, who have land of their own, and live on good Husbandry.
Sir T. Smith defines a Yeoman to be a free born Englishman, who may lay out of his
own free Land in Yearly Revenue, to the sum of 40s.

Now Lawrence is not most certainly one of any of the first degrees { 208 } of the Commons. He is a poor, low, inferiour sort of Man, to be ranked only among
Labourers, and the meanest of the People. He is certainly no freeholder, he has no
Land of his own, and he does not live at all upon Husbandry. And if it should be admitted
that he was a free born Englishman, according to the first Part of Sir Thos. Smiths
Definition, yet he does not answer the last Part of it, for he cannot lay out of his
own free Land, in Yearly Revenue to the sum of 40s., for he is not the owner of one
foot of Land in the World.

I find in 23: H. 6. 15. Ab[ridgmen]t [of the] Statutes, title Parliament ss. 29. None shall be a Knight of the Shire, which standeth
in the Degree of a Yeoman or Under.—By this statute therefore it appears that there
are Degrees, or at least a Degree under that of a Yeoman.

In Shep[pard’s] Ab[ridgmen]t, Title Name.—So of Commons there be Degrees as Knights, Esquires, Gentlemen, Citizens,
Yeomen and Burgesses of several Degrees.—Here Burgesses are a Rank below Yeoman.

Is Lawrence a Yeoman?

For the affirmative these Things are to be considered.—

What was the precise meaning of the Word Yeoman in the ancient Saxon or Teutonic Languages,
I cannot say. And whether this Title was or was not in ancient times, most usually
given to Land Holders, to Country farmers, is not worth while to inquire, because
it is not material to the present Question.—For

It is certain, that in the modern Language both of Courts and History’s, all Persons
under the Degree of Gentlemen are styled Yeomen. The Gentry and Yeomanry of England
comprehend all Degrees of Men from the King to the Beggar, in History, and in the
modern Lawbooks a Yeoman is defined to be an ordinary common man.

In Strange’s Reports—It is settled over and over again, first that a Trader may be
sued by the Addition of his Degree, as that of Yeoman e.g. and the Writ shall not
abate unless he pleads another degree. Another Defendant pleaded that he was a Lime
merchant, and not a Yeoman. Plaintiff demurred, and the Court held, that every Man
be he a trader or not a Trader, has a Degree by which he may be denoted. And that
if the Defendant had shewn himself to be a Degree higher than a Yeoman, that would
have abated the Writ, but not otherwise.

In modern Cases, Defendant pleaded that he was a Farmer and not a Yeoman. The Plaintiff
demurred, and it was held, that if the Defendant is not a Gentleman he must be a Yeoman
i.e. an ordinary or common Person.

Besides I find it said in some Dictionaries that the Saxon Word from whence Yeoman
is drawn signified a Shepherd. Now a Man may be a shepherd without being a Landholder,
and the Word which answers this in the teutonic Language signified a common man. Now
every common man is not a Landholder.

But all these Criticisms are Trash and trifling for it is settled Practice in this
Court, in Conformity to the late Practice at Home, to call every one of these lower
sort of People, who are not Gentlemen and whose Occupation is not known, Yeoman. I
have heard common soldiers, styled Yeomen in Indictments, soldiers belonging to the
Train who had no Land. I have known a Multitude of Instances where Defendants in civil
Actions in this Court, have been called Yeomen, who never owned an Inch of ground
in their Lives. But this Man has a better Right to this Addition, for he was born
a Yeoman according to this Definition, i.e. a Land holder, and he owned when this
Note was given a good farm, a farm worth £3000.

Q[uery]. Is Labourer an Addition of Degree or Mistery? A Labourer is one that has no Trade
or Art or Mistery, but it is an Occupation.

It would be worth while to describe all the Transformations of J.Q.’s3 flatery.—Yet there is always a salvo, which shews his Deceit and Insincerity.

If Mr. Adams should become in 2 or 3 Years, one of the most eminent Lawyers in the
County, and remove to Boston, there you would find persons, who have Daughters to
dispose of, who have Knowledge of the World, and Prudence enough to look out the <most thriving> best Characters, for Matches to their Daughters. Twenty such Men would have their
Eyes upon You; would dress out their Daughters to the best Advantage, contrive Interviews,
lay schemes and presently, some one more beautiful, or sensible, or witty or artful,
than the rest will take you in. We shall see you, in spight of your Phylosophy, and
Contempt for Wife and Mistress and all that, sighing, and dying with Love. [Here,
under a specious Pretext of Raillery for my boasted, and affected, Indifference to
Ladies, he is insinuating or would make me believe that he designed to insinuate,
that I am likely to be the ablest Lawyer on the stage, in 2 or 3 Years, that 20 Gentlemen
will Eye me for a Match to their Daughters, and all that. This is the flattery. Yet,
in truth he only said, if Mr. Adams should become &c. so that if his Consequences
should never take Place, Oh I never expected they would, for I did not expect you
would be eminent.—Besides, if he was to speak his real sentiments, I am so { 210 } illbred, unpolished &c. that I never shall succeed with ladies or the World &c. &c.]4

The same Evening, I shew him, my Draught of our Licensed Houses and the Remarks upon
it.5 Oh he was transported! he was ravished! He would introduce that Plan at the sessions,
and read the Remarks, and say they were made as well as the Plan by a Gentleman to
whom their could be no Exception—&c. He saw an Abstract of the Argument for and against
Writts of Assistants—and crys did you take this from those Gentlemen as they delivered
it? You can do any Thing! You can do as you please! Gridley did not use that Language.
He never was Master of such a style! It is not in him—&c.6

I will lay 100 Guineas, that before 20 Years, you will raise the Fees of the Bar 3
fold. If your Eloquence should turn out equal to your Understanding, you will. I know
you will!

You have Ld. Bolinbroke by heart! With one cursory Reading you have a deeper Understanding
of him and remember more of him, than I do after 3 or 4 Readings, or than I should
have after 10 Readings.

With all your Merit, and Learning, and Wit and sense and Spirit, and Vivacity, and
all that.—

These are the bold, gross, barefaced Flatteries that I hear every Time I see that
Man. Can he think me such a Ninny as to be allured and deceived by such gross Arts?
He must think me vastly vain, silly, stupid, if he thinks to impose on me, if he thinks
I cant see the Deceit. It must be deceit. It cannot be any Thing else.

Gray v. Paxton. Otis drew a Writ vs. Paxton for Money had and received to the Use
of the Province. Prat pleaded in Abatement, That, altho the suit was brot in Greys
Name, altho Gray was Plantiff, Yet no Promise was alledged to have been made to Gray.
The Defendant is alledged to be indebted to the Province, for Money received to the
Provinces Use, and to have promised to pay it to the Province. Yet the Province is
not Plantiff. It is Gray vs. Paxton, but it should have been the Province of the Massachusetts
Bay v. Paxton.7

The Treasurer and Receiver General has not a Right ex Offido, to demand, sue for and
recover all Monies that are due to the Province. No more than a Noblemans Steward
has to sue for and Recover the Demands of the Nobleman: No more than the Cashier of
the Bank of England, has to sue for and Recover all Monies due to the Bank of England.
A steward may sue but not in his own Name, he must sue in the Name of his Master.
The Cashier may sue, but not in his own Name, he must sue in the Name of the Governor
and Company of the { 211 } Bank of England. A Corporate Body is one Person in Law and may sue or be sued, and
There is an Instance, before the Court, this Term, in your own Dockett, of a suit
brot by a Town, the Town of Dorchester vs. A.B. &c. There is a special Law of this
Province, which impowers [sentence unfinished]

5. That is, JA’s sketch map of tavern locations, which is reproduced in this volume; see entry of 29 May 1760 and note, above. CFA, who mentions the map without reproducing it, prints a passage of JA’s accompanying comment which no longer appears on or with the map, as follows:

“N.B. Place one foot of your dividers at Eb. Thayer’s house, and extend the other
about one mile and a half, and then sweep a circle; you will surround eight public
houses, besides one in the centre. There is vastly more travelling and little less
business in Milton, Dorchester, and Roxbury, where public houses are thinly scattered,
than there is in Braintree; and why poor Braintree men, who have no virtue to boast
of, should be solicited with more temptations than others, I can’t imagine. This,
I will say, that whoever is in fault, or whatever was the design, taverns and dramshops
have been systematically and scandalously multiplied in this town; and, like so many
boxes of Pandora, they are hourly scattering plagues of every land, natural, moral,
and political, through the whole town” (Works, 2:123, note)

.

6. This is the only reference in the Diary to the celebrated argument before the Superior
Court in Feb. 1761 concerning the legality of writs of assistance. In his Autobiography
JA furnished from memory a longer account of what he called the first incident in a
“Contest ... to which I could foresee no End.” Many of the details in his later account
(printed by CFA in JA, Works, 2:124, note), repeated with variations and additions in his letters to William Tudor,
1817–1818, were questioned and corrected by Horace Gray in a learned appendix on writs
of assistance in Quincy’s Reports, 1865, p. 395–540; see especially p. 408–409; 414, note; 469, note. From some of
the language used in the present Diary entry (“an Abstract of the Argument for and
against Writts of Assistants”), it would appear that JA showed Col. Quincy his original hasty notes taken during the hearing. These survive
as a single large folded sheet with nine pages covered by writing among JA’s legal papers (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 185; printed in JA, Works, 2:521–523, and more literally, with full annotation by Horace Gray, in Quincy, Reports, p. 469–482). On the other hand, as Professor Gipson has pointed out, no one could
possibly have praised the “style” of these crabbed notes, and it is therefore possible
and even probable that JA had already written up his notes of Gridley’s argument for the writs and Otis’ and
Thacher’s arguments against them in a discursive form intended to circulate among
friends and other interested persons. At any rate, a writtenup version did circulate some time afterward, if not immediately, for variant texts of such a version
appeared in newspapers and in lawyers’ commonplace books, and JA acknowledged the authorship of one portion (Otis’ speech) that was eventually printed
in George Richards Minot’s Continuation of the History of the Province of Massachusetts, Boston, 1798–1803, 2:91–100. See also JA, Works, 2:523–525; Samuel A. Green’s remarks on the textual history of Otis’ speech in MHS, Procs., 2d ser., 6 (1890–1891): 190–196; Lawrence H. Gipson, “Aspects of the Beginning of the American Revolution,” Amer. Antiq.
Soc., Procs., 67 (1957): 23, note; Joseph R. Frese, “James Otis and Writs of Assistance,” NEQ, 30:496–508 (Dec. 1957). Fortunately it is possible to defer any attempt to reconstruct
the { 212 } text of JA’s longer version (of which no MS in his hand has been found) with at least some hope that more evidence may come to
light.

7. This detached entry appears to be out of place chronologically, since it reports part
of Benjamin Prat’s plea in abatement of the writ in the case of Gray v. Paxton, tried in Suffolk Inferior Court, July 1761. This was a famous case, with
marked political overtones. Harrison Gray (1711–1794) was provincial treasurer and receiver-general; Charles Paxton (1707–1788) was a commissioner of customs in Boston (Stark, Loyalists of Mass., p. 34–336, 318–319). The action grew out of Paxton’s practice of charging his costs
for secret informers entirely against the King’s (that is to say, the Province’s)
one-third share of the value of goods forfeited under admiralty court decisions, while
the Governor and the informer each got their full thirds. As a result of a petition
from a number of merchants and after much bickering between the House of Representatives
and Governor Bernard, the General Court in Jan. 1761 authorized Treasurer Gray to
sue Paxton for the alleged deficiencies (more than £357). Much discussed during the
spring, the case came on in the Inferior Court in July, and Paxton lost. The Superior
Court in its August term supported Prat’s plea in abatement and reversed the decision.
A new action, Province v. Paxton, was thereupon brought in the Inferior Court, Jan. 1762, and judgment was
again rendered against Paxton. He again appealed, and, to use Bernard’s words, “pursuant
to the direction of all the Judges the jury found for the defendant [Paxton],” Feb.
1762. The records of the two cases, with full commentary, are printed by Samuel M.
Quincy in Appendix II to Quincy, Reports, p. 541–552. It is to Chief Justice Hutchinson’s role in the two cases on appeal
that JA refers so bitterly in his Diary for 30 Dec. 1765: “Who has made it his constant Endeavor to discountenance the Odium in which Informers
are held?” &c.

I am myself an Inhabitant of Boston, and have I think an honest affection for the
Town, and a sincere Concern for its Honour: for which Reason I cannot reflect upon
the late prevailing Humor of attributing our own follies to the Country without Regret.
The late Engagement in your Paper, between two litigating Scribblers, about the Clergy
of this Town, and their lawdable Conduct, at the late Installment, forsooth was between
two Country laymen:2 and many other Pieces lately published have been in Country Characters; young Gentlemen
from the Country, old Batchellers in the Country &c. This is [merely?] fathering our own natural Children on other Men who are more chaste. Such Pieces,
every Man who reads them knows, are the Productions of idle fellows in this Town—Persons
who have no Business, of more Consequence, to employ their Time and Thoughts, and
who happen to grow vain enough in their own Imaginations, to prize highly their own
Wit and Talent. Whereas the good People in the Country, whom in Journeys which I often
take I have pretty carefully observed, are more dilligent and attentive to their own
Business, and much less conceited of their sense and Learning. Besides any Man may
observe in these Pieces, a Temper, and Manners quite remote from the { 213 } honest simplicity and natural, and habitual Benevolence of a Countryman. Tis really
doing Injustice to the Country to impute to it such uncandid, illiberal Productions,
but no Wonder these Grubstreet Garreteers are guilty of this Injustice when, I am
sorry to say it, a like Kind is committed by almost all orders of the Town, in many
other affairs of much more Consequence.

The affair of Taxes has been a common Place Topic of Complaint against the Country,
among all Ranks of Men in this Metropolis for many Years. Our Gentry has given frequent
Invitations, to the Country Representatives, and to other Country Gentlemen, who had
Acquaintance here, to Entertainments. The Productions of every Element and Climate
were assembled, and the nicest Art and Cookery employed to regale them. The furniture
of our Houses and Tables were proportionably rich and gay. Our Persons were cloathed
in silks and Laces and Velvet, and our Daughters especially blazed in the rich vestments
of Princesses. At the same Time the poor Gentlemen were scarcely able to walk the
streets, for the Multitude of Chariots, or to hear themselves speak for the rapid
Rattling of Hoofs and Wheels. (Wits and Wags may laugh at my Discription, but Foppery
ought to be described in Bombast.) These Appearances at the Churches, assemblies,
Concerts, Private Houses and streets, gave the Country an opinion, either that Boston
was vastly rich or vastly extravagant, and they dared not, by any public speech or
Conduct suppose the latter least they should give offence to us, who had treated them
even with assiduous Complaisance and Hospitality.

They endeavoured to Settle the Proportion of public Burdens, (and how should they
do otherwise) according to the best Proofs they could procure of Wealth and Ability:
And altho People in the Country were obliged to wear Homespun threadbare, eat salt
Pork and Beef, drink Cyder and small Beer, and turn every stone, and save every Penny
to pay their Taxes, and did it chearfully too: yet we in Boston never would pay ours,
without Grumbling, and cursing Country folks, and Country Representatives.

Well, the Country Gentlemen desirous to do Justice, [harkened?] to our Complaints, and set themselves to discover as well as they could, who was
and who was not able to support the Pomp they every day saw. They asked our own Representatives
and other, the most sensible Inhabitants of the Town, and no better Method was to
be found than the Valuation Act.3 But, this, instead of <quieting> extinguishing only enflamed our Discontent.4 “What we cry? We obliged to tell upon Oath how much we are worth? must not we drink
Madeira, eat in { 214 } silver and China? Ride in our Chariots? Go to Concerts and assemblies? and let our
sons and Daughters spend a few Guineas a Week at Cards without telling the assessors,
and having it recorded that we are in Debt for all this, and £10, 000 worse than nothing!
Oh these vile shoe string Representatives.”5

We have not in short the Ingenuity of common Debauchees, who will often confess their
own folly, in getting Claps and daily Drams, has given them the Hectick: But we are
determined to take no shame to ourselves, but charge the natural and unavoidable Consequences
of our own Imprudence on the Country. The Country, it is true, is not an unexceptionable
Example of Wisdom. Many Things are running Wild. Many simptoms begin to appear, that
threaten their Happiness, their Morals, Health, Properties and Liberties, in a very
melancholly manner: But even these simptoms are produced, in a great Measure by the
inconsiderate Politicks of this Town.—Give me Leave to mention a very flagrant Instance
out of a Multitude.

If you ride over this whole Province you will find, that, alltho Taverns are generally
too numerous, they are not half so numerous in any one County, in Proportion to the
Numbers of People and the Necessity of Business and Travellers, as in this. In most
Country Towns, in this County,6 you will find almost every other House, with a sign of Entertainment before it. If
you call, you will find Dirt enough, very miserable Accommodation of Provision and
Lodging, for your self and your Horse. Yet if you set the Evening, you will find the
House full of People, drinking Drams, Phlip,7 Toddy, Carrousing, swearing, but especially, plotting, with the Landlord, to get
him, at the next Town Meeting an Election, either for select man or Representative.
Thus the Multiplicity of these Houses, by dividing the Profits, renders the Landlords
careless of Travellers, and allures the poor Country People, who are tired with Labour
and hanker after Company, to waste their Time and money, contract Habits of Intemperance
and Idleness, and by degrees to loose the natural dignity and freedom of Inglish Minds,
and confer those offices, which belong by Nature and the spirit of all Government
to Probity and Honesty, on the meanest and weakest and worst of human Characters.

A good deal of this has happened, as I believe, partly from what I have seen and partly
from credible Information, in the Country: But who is most to blame! The Court of
Sessions has made such Rules for itself, that the Country Justices can seldom attend.
The select Men of the several Towns, have been so often disappointed, that they are
discouraged. Some Houses to my Knowledge have been licensed which { 215 } never had any Approbation from any select Man. Other Persons have been licensed whom
the select Men have found by Experience, and certified to be, guilty of Misrule, and
therefore unfit. Others have been recognized for seven Years together without any
Approbation from the select Men, thro that whole Time. Nay a Man has been recognized,
tho the select Men certifyed good Reasons for not approbating him—that he was very
intemperate, had poor Accommodations, and was subject to fits of Caprice if not Delirium,
that made it dangerous to come near him: and altho it was proved, that the same Man,
in one of those fits, had but a few days before, Stabbed another, with apparent Design
and great Danger of Murder.

Now I agree, that Ambitious Spirits in the Country, who have little Honour, will soon
see, that such Houses must be favoured, and multiplied, to promote their own designs,
and therefore Retailers and Taverners are generally in the Country Assessors, or select
Men, or Representative or Esquires: But are not we more to blame. Are not some of
our Justices, Importers of Mollasses? are not others Distillers? and are not all of
them fond of a lawful Fee? In short it is owing wholly to Boston Justices, that those
Houses have been so shamefully multiplied, in the Country, multiplied so that decent
Entertainment for a Traveller is no where to be had.

The Freedom of Censure is a Matter of great Consequence under our Government.8 There are certain Vices and follies, certain Indecencies of Behaviour, beneath the
Inspection and Censure of Law and Magistracy, which must be restrained and corrected
by Satyr. And for this Reason, every Piece of just Ridicule in public or private bestowed
on any <foppery> wrong or foolish Conduct, gives me great Pleasure, even altho I am myself the Object.
From the same Principle I was glad to see some Animadversion on the late inconsistent
Conduct of the Ministers of this Town. And nothing but sacerdotal Impudence, and Ecclesiastical
Pride, can account for the surly, revengeful Manner in which those Pieces have been
received.

1. This is the last of JA’s series of letters on the evils of taverns; see entry of 29 May 1760 and note, above. Though clearly intended for publication in the Boston Gazette (see the following note), no printing has been found.

2. “The late Engagement in your Paper” alludes to a controversy arising from a news item
in the Boston Gazette, 2 March 1761, describing the installation of Rev. Alexander Cumming as co-pastor
with Dr. Joseph Sewall of the Old South Church in Boston a week earlier. The “Entertainment”
provided for the “honourable and reverend Guests” was so “very sumptuous and elegant,”
the notice said, that it had to be held in several houses. “And it is concluded, that
many poor People were the better for what remained of so plentiful and splendid a
Feast; such as was hardly ever known among us on a similar Occasion.” In the { 216 } following issue, 9 March, an anonymous writer who described himself as a country layman
declared these proceedings “disgusting” to himself and discreditable to the Congregational
ministry. He called attention to resolves that a convention of ministers had themselves
adopted two years earlier, disapproving “Feasting, Jollity and Revelling” on such
occasions, and pointed out that Joseph Sewall had issued the resolves over his own
name as moderator of the convention. On 6 April the Gazette carried a rejoinder from another “country layman,” who ventured the opinion that
the guests had enjoyed only the “moderate refreshment” to which any Christian is entitled.
The dispute spun itself out until 11 May, when the first writer got the last word
by describing the fare in detail, his informant (he said) having been one of the guests:

“There were six tables, that held one with another 18 persons, upon each table a good
rich plum pudding, a dish of boil’d pork and fowls, and a corn’d leg of pork, with
sauce proper for it, a leg of bacon, a piece of alamode beef, a leg of mutton with
caper sauce, a piece of roast beef, a roast line [loin] of veal, a roast turkey, a
venison pastee, besides chess cakes and tarts, cheese and butter. Half a dozen cooks
were employed upon this occasion, upwards of twenty tenders to wait upon the tables;
they had the best of old cyder, one barrel of Lisbon wine, punch in plenty before
and after dinner, made of old Barbados spirit. The cost of this moderate dinner was
upwards of fifty pounds lawful money.”

3. An Act for Enquiring into the Rateable Estates of this Province, passed 31 Jan. 1761,
required all persons to list on oath their real and personal property for the purpose
of a new tax assessment (Acts of 1760–1761, ch. 24; Mass., Province Laws, 4:422–423).

4. In an earlier and very fragmentary draft of this essay, just preceding the present
draft in the MS, the foregoing sentence reads: “But this threw new fuel into the unquenchable furnace
of Boston Passions.” There is reason to believe that this alternative draft was once
longer but was later removed from the paper booklet; see note 8, below.

6. The words “Country” and “County” in this sentence (and frequently elsewhere in JA’s early Diary) are indistinguishable as written by JA. In transcribing, one can only go by the sense of the passage.

8. The present paragraph is separated by an interval of space from the foregoing text.
In the margin is written “Beg.,” (i.e. “Begin”), which together with the substance
indicates that this paragraph was an alternative opening for the essay. It may, however,
have been intended as the beginning of the now largely missing draft; see note 4, above.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0006-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-06-11

June 11th. 1761.

I have been for a Week or fortnight engaged in a Project.1 Have remarkably succeeded hitherto. Mr. Niles approved in all Things. Major Crosbey
approved in all Things. Deacon Palmer approved in all Things. They have given under
their Hands a very full and handsome Character and Recommendation of my Brother—much
more ample than I expected. They have really Spoken in Hyperbole. They have expressed
themselves with Warmth. I expected only a signification of their Consent and Approbation,
but they have expressed themselves with Zeal. I ought to consider these Credentials
gratefully, as a strong Instance of friendship, and take the first Opportunity of
making some Return. Mr. N. has the worst opinion of Thayers Morals. He detests the
base Methods of Debauchery, and Lying, and Duplicity, that he has been in. P. despizes
him.

But scheming seldom has success. I expect to come off but second best after all. I
expect that Thayer will hear of my Design, and in order to defeat it, continue in
the office himself. If he should, I shall be pretty [well?]. Intrigue, and making Interest, and Asking favors is a new Employment to me. I’m
unpractised in Intrigues for Power.

I begin to feel the Passions of the World. Ambition, Avarice, Intrigue, Party, all
must be guarded.2

My fears of failing are at last vanished. The scheme succeeded in all Things, and
is compleated. B[oylston] is constituted, commissioned, sworn, and this Day, undertaken to officiate. Now a
new Train of Anxieties, begins to take Place. Fears of imperfect services, imperfect
and false Returns, voluntary and negligent Escapes, miscalculations, Want of strength,
Courage, Celerity, Want of Art and Contrivance &c. Rashness, Indolence, Timidity,
&c.

The Project was so well planned, that success seemed certain. <Every Party>, all the Justices recommended. Two other Gents of his Acquaintance, men of Honour
and figure. G.3 concurred and urged, and dropped Hints if not Anecdotes, vs. the old one. Hints were
dropped to him by others that I should employ Constables and so deprive him of his
Profits. So that his Interest, his Vanity, his Honour, were all touched. It cost me
much Pains, at least 2 Journeys to Boston, one to Mr. Niles’, one to Germantown, one
to Mr. [Bullards?], and Majr. Crosbeys. The Writing of a long Bond. The solicitation of Credentials,
of sureties and of the office. More4 solicitation procured it. And altho it was not much disguised or concealed, yet it
was so silently conducted that I believe the [grand?] Adversary never once suspected it. All the Wiles and Malice of the old serpent would
have been employed against it, if it had been known or suspected. But there was one
Particular of mere Luck, to which we were much indebted—vizt. the Complaint of Cudworth
against T. That unfriendly, unbrotherly, unneighbourly, as well as rash and unmannerly,
Spurning of the Execution, and then sending it to Gould, where it was lost, gave the
great Man an ill opinion of his sub.5 and made him more willing and ready, at my solicitation, to constitute another, and
even without consulting Thayer.

1. To obtain the appointment of his brother Peter Boylston Adams as a deputy sheriff
of Suffolk co. This was, as JA explained in his Autobiography, “in pursuance of my plan of reforming the practice
of Sheriffs and Pettyfoggers” in drawing writs. A bill of costs from Peter for serving
a long list of writs for JA, 1764–1766, remains in the Adams Papers, under the date of 26–27 Sept. 1766.

2. A line across the page follows this paragraph in the MS, so that what follows may have been—and probably was—written one or more days later.

June 20th. 1761.

I have latterly arose much earlyer than Usual. Arose at five and at 6 O’clock, instead
of 8 and 9. The Mornings are very long, and fine opportunities for Study. They are
cool and pleasant. But I have not improved my Time, properly. I have dozed and sauntered
away much of my Time. This morning is very fine. The clear sky, the bright sun, the
clean Groves and Grass, after so fine a Rain are very pleasant. But the Books within
this Chamber have a much better Title to my Attention than any of the rural scenes
and objects without it. I have been latterly too much in the World, and too little
in this Retreat. Abroad, my Appetites are solicited, my Passions inflamed, and my
Understanding too much perverted, to judge wisely of Men or Things. But in this Retreat,
where neither my Senses nor Appetites nor Passions are excited, am able to consider
all Things more coolly, and sensibly. I was guilty of rash and profane Swearing, of
rough <and indecent> Virulence vs. the Characters of Goffe, J. Russell, Lieutenant Governor, &c. Not but
that there have been Faults in their Characters and Conduct, that every honest Man
ought to resent.

I have been interrupted from Reading this Institute ever since Feby. Amidst the Dissipations
of Business, Pleasure, Conversation, Intrigue, Party &c. what mortal can give Attention
to an old latin Institute of the Cannon Law? But it is certainly worth while to proceed
and finish it, as I have already been 2/3 thro it.

1. This second entry so dated is from D/JA/4, JA’s desultory record of studies. The “Institute” here mentioned is Lancelotti’s compilation
of canon law; see entries of 27 Jan., above, and 17 Oct., below.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0007-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-07-07

July 7th. 1761.

Dined at Deacon Hills, with Sam Quincy and his Bride,1 and with Mr. Cushing a Representative of Salisbury. Cushing seems a fair minded Countryman.
Some free and friendly Conversation passed between Henry Hill and his father, about
Advancement, and stock and setting up, and giving £1000 a Year. Henry said You ought
to give me £1000 a Year or 10,000 right out, and then I maintain myself. You must
give me Money or learn me to get it, or why did you make me? I’le go back again, &c.

Drank Tea, at Major Nobles, with Coll. Quincy, Deacon Whitte• { 219 } more, and the Man who is sued to this Court. I’ve forgot his Name. All in Consultation
about defending their Lands in the Eastward.

Augt. 1st.

I am creating Enemies in every Quarter of the Town. The Clarks hate. Mother Hubbard,
Thayer, Lamb, Tirrell, J. Brackett. This is multiplying and propagating Enemies, <too> fast. I shall have the Ill-Will of the whole Town.1

Daniel White, Moses Adams.—This will not do.

Daniel Prat vs. Thos. Colson.—This Action was brot by Plaintiff vs. Colson as Administrator,
on the Estate of Mr. Bolter, for Non-Performance of a Covenant of Indenture. Prat
was a poor, fatherless Child and his Mother Unable to provide for him, bound him an
Apprentice to Mr. Bolter. He was then under 10 Years of Age, and so was bound for
Eleven Years, and some odd Months. In Consideration of this very long and unusual
Term of Apprenticeship his Master covenanted to teach him to read, write and Cypher,
and to teach him the Trade of a Weaver. But we <contend> complain that he never taught us either to read, write or Cypher, or to weave. Call
the Proof.

The Law, Gentlemen, is extreamly tender and indulgent to such Actions as these. For
such is the Benignity and Humanity of the English Constitution that all the weak,
and helpless, and friendless Part of our Species are taken under its Peculiar Care
and Protection. Women, Children, and Especially Widows and fatherless Children, have
always, from the Compassion of the Law peculiar Priviledges and Indulgences allowed
them. Therefore as a poor, fatherless, and friendless Child the Law would allow great
Indulgence and Lenity to this Plantiff.

But he is to be favoured for Another Reason. Because the English Law greatly favours
Education. In every English Country, some sort of Education, some Acquaintance with
Letters, is necessary, that a Man may fill any station whatever. In the Countries
of slavery, and Romish superstition, the Laity must not learn to read, least they
should detect the gross Impostures of the Priesthood, and shake off the Yoke of Bondage.
But in Protestant Countries and especially in England and its Colonies, Freedom of
Enquiry is allowed to be not only the Priviledge { 220 } but the Duty of every Individual. We know it to be our Duty, to read, examine and
judge for ourselves, even of ourselves what is right. No Priest nor Pope has any Right
to say what I shall believe, and I will not believe one Word they say, if I think
it is not founded in Reason and in Revelation. Now how can I judge what My Bible justifies
unless I can read my Bible.

The English Constitution is founded, tis bottomed And grounded on the Knowledge and
good sense of the People. The very Ground of our Liberties, is the freedom of Elections.
Every Man has in Politicks as well as Religion, a Right to think and speak and Act
for himself. No man either King or Subject, Clergyman or Layman has any Right to dictate
to me the Person I shall choose for my Legislator and Ruler. I must judge for myself,
but how can I judge, how can any Man judge, unless his Mind has been opened and enlarged
by Reading. A Man who can read, will find in his Bible, in the common sermon Books
that common People have by them and even in the Almanack and News Papers, Rules and
observations, that will enlarge his Range of Thought, and enable him the better to
judge who has and who has not that Integrity of Heart, and that Compass of Knowledge
and Understanding, which form the Statesman.

Mem[orandum]. To ask Seth Copeland, whether his Father White has a Copy of his Fathers Will? How
came Eb. White possessed of that old Deed to his father, and how came Tho’s White
to have it? and whether he Tho’s White has a Copy of that Deed. And Q[uery] of whom Capt. Thayer bought his share of the Landing? and of whom Holbrook bought
his share of the Landing? And whether the Beech and Flatts, where Thayers and Holbrooks
Wharffs now are, ever belonged to Tho’s White the Testator.

1. The several semidetached entries that follow may have been written any time from 2
Aug. to 9 Sept. 1761.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0009-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-09-10

Septr. 10th. 1761.

Spent Evening at Zabs with the Parson.

Wibirt. I have seen a Picture of Oliver Cromwell, with this Motto under it—

A certain Romish Priest had five young Nuns, committed to his Charge, i.e. he was
appointed the Confessor to them. And after a while they all five proved with Child
by him. He was summoned into the spiritual Court, to answer to the Charge of Fornication.
The Judge told him he was charged with a criminal Correspondence with all five of
the Nuns that had been entrusted to his Care. The Priest replies, Quinque mihi tradidit
Dominus Talenta, Et Ecce alia quinque super lucratus sum.—The Judge was so well pleased
with his Confession that he said Remittuntur tibi Peccata tua, Abi in Pace.

Octr. 17th. 1761.

I began Lancelotts Institute last Jany., and have read no farther than Lib[er] 3. Ti[tulus] 8. De Exceptionibus et Replicationibus.

1. This entry, the second so dated, is from D/JA/4, JA’s journal of studies.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0010-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-10-18

Octr. 18th. 1761. Sunday.

Arose at 6. Read in Popes Satyrs. Nil Admirari &c. I last night read thro, both of
Dr. Donnes Satyrs versifyed by Pope. Was most struck with these Lines

Bear me some God! Oh! quickly bear me hence

To wholsome solitude the Nurse of sense

Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled Wings

And the free soul looks down to pitty Kings.

Prayer! A post[ulant?]—Hands uplifted, and Eyes. A very proper Prayer for me to make when I’m in Boston.
Solitude is a Personage, in a clean, wholsome Dress, the Nurse and Nourisher of sense.
Contemplation a Personage, prunes, picks, smooths. Is she an Angell or a Bird—ruffled,
rumpled, rugged, uneven, tumbled. Free soul, not enslaved, unshackled, no Bondage,
no subjection, looks down, pitties George, Louis, Frederick, Phillip, Charles, &c.1

Among the numberless Imperfections of human Nature and society, there is none that
deserves to be more lamented, because there is none that is the source of greater
Evils, than the Tendency of great { 222 } Parts and Genius, to imprudent sallies and a Wrong Biass.2 If We move back, thro the History of all ages and Nations, we shall find, that all
the Tumults, Insurrections, and Revolutions, that have disturbed the Peace of society,
and spilled oceans of Blood, have arisen from the giddy Rashness and Extravagance
of the sublimest Minds. But in those Governments where the People have much Power,
tho the best that can be found, the Danger from such spirits is the greatest of all.
That unquenchable Thirst of superiority, and Power which, in such Governments, inkindles
the Lust of Popularity, often precipitates Persons of [the] Character I describe, into the wildest Projects and Adventures, to set the World
aware of their Parts and Persons, without attending to the Calamities that must ensue.
Popular orators are generally opposite to the present Administration, blaming public
Measures, and despizing or detesting Persons in Power, whether wise or foolish, wicked
or upright, with all their Wit, and Knowledge, merely to make themselves the Idols
of a slavish, timid People, who are always jealous and invidious of Power and therefore
devoted to those that expose, ridicule or condemn it. Eloquence that may be employed
wisely to persuade, is often employed wickedly to seduce, from the Eloquence of Greece
and Rome down to the rude speeches of our American Town Meeting. I have more charity,
than to believe, that these orators really intend an Injury to their Country; but
so subtle are our Hearts in deceiving ourselves, we are so apt to think our own Parts
so able and capable and necessary to the public, that we shall richly repair, by our
Capacity in public station any Mischiefs we occasion in our Way to them. There is
perhaps a sincere Patriotism in the Hearts of all such Persons; but it must be confessed,
that the most refined Patriotism to which human Nature can be wrought, has in it an
alloy of Ambition, of Pride and avarice that debases the Composition, and produces
mischievous Effects.

As unhappy and blamable as such Persons are, the general Method in Use among Persons
in Power of treating such spirits, is neither less unhappy, or blamable or hurtful.
Such Minds, with a wise and delicate Management, may be made the ornaments and Blessings:
but by an unskilfull and rough Usage, will be rendered desperate and therefore the
Worst Blemishes and Plagues of their Country.

I therefore who am setting up for the Monitor of all future Legislators, a Character
for which by my great Age, Experience, Sense and Learning I am well qualified, hereby
advise the orator, to guard himself and his Country, against the Danger to which his
Passions expose both, and the Man in Power, instead of thwarting, and insulting and
over { 223 } bearing a Person who perhaps is full as wise and good as he, to [soothe?]3 and cool and soften by a mild obliging Behaviour, and a just Attention to the [former?].4

You have given me a fee.5 Now this Action may possibly bear 3 several Constructions.

1st. It might be considered as an Engagement in your suit vs. Cranch.

2d. It might be considered as an Engagement to give you, the Offer of my service in
all Causes, before I should engage in favour of any other Person vs. you.

3. It may be considered, for aught I can say, merely as a sop for Cerberus, <to hinder> in short to silence me <in this Case, to> bearly6 to prevent my engaging on the other side, and to secure me as an Under Worker to
fetch and carry, prepare Evidence &c.

Now I frankly tell you, when I accepted a fee from you, I accepted it in the second
sense And in that alone. And I will tell you my Reasons. I had often heard you say
that you once gave Mr. Prat a retaining fee, and you explain[ed] yourself thus—a fee <not to engage for> to be on your side in all Causes if you desired it, and not to engage against you,
without first letting you know it. And you said further that whenever any Cause happened,
after you gave that fee, you again engaged him &c. Another Reason was some time since
when you apprehended a Dispute with Deacon Palmer you <told me you> desired me if any Person should apply to me against you that I would not engage without
letting you know it, and if upon such Information you did not offer me more than the
other Party had, I should be at Liberty to engage for him. And you then subjoined,
to secure You to this, I will give you a retaining fee if you will take it. By the
Way I then made this objection. “For another Person I may be employed to conduct the
Cause but you can never entrust a Cause in the Hands of your Son and me, and to employ
me in Conjunction with another, in Neglect of your Son, would not do.” You answered
Yes, I should have the Conduct of the Causes for it was not proper a son [should?] argue a Cause for his father. Another Reason was you offered the fee to me as a retaining
fee before you said one Word of any Particular Cause. Neither of Mr. Cranchs 3 suits,
nor any Eastern Claims, nor Deacon Palmers Account nor any other Cause was mentioned
to me, til after you had put the fee into my Hand, and with it you said if any Person
shall apply to you against me, dont you engage till You let me [remainder missing]

Tuesday Night. Col. Q. If that House was builded in 1755 before { 224 } my first Wifes Death &c. &c. I am the most lost to all sense of Truth that ever Man
was.7

1. There is little or no clue to the date of the three detached entries which follow
and which conclude the entries in D/JA/7. One can only suppose they were written soon
after the present entry, but because of variations in ink and intervals of blank space
in the MS this is by no means certain.

2. This entry is a draft of another essay probably intended for a newspaper and probably
incomplete as it now stands. No printing has been found.

Another Year is come round, and I can recollect still less Reading, than I could last
Novr. The Increase of my Business, within 12ve months, has been nothing. I drew fewer
Writs last October Court than I drew the October Court before, tho I drew an uncommon
Number at both.—Yet I have advanced a few Steps. Have procured my Brother, his office,
abated Nathan Spears Writ, Battled it with Capt. Thayer at Majr. Crosbeys, recovered
of Jo. Tirrell for Lambard, recovered of Lawrence for Tirrell, abated Kings Writ,
conducted the Pet[ition] vs. Tav[erns]. All These Things have been done in one Year. Besides have bought some Books &c.
but have read but little Law.

This morning I have been Reading Archbp. Sharps sermon, To the Upright there ariseth
Light in the Darkness. His Character of the Upright man, &c. Same day read a Number
of his sermons in his first Volume. He is a moving, affectionate Preacher—devotional,
more than Tillotson, but not so moral.2

1. This and the two following entries are from JA’s journal of studies, D/JA/4, and conclude the entries in that booklet except for
a single one made eleven years later (21 Nov. 1772, q.v.).

2. JA owned a collection of the very popular Works of John Sharp, Archbishop of York, in 7 vols., London, 1754 (Catalogue of JA’s Library).

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0011-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-11-14

Novr. 14th. 1761.

Brother Quincy and I were Sworn, before the Superiour Court.1 It is now more than five Years since I began the study of the Law. And it is about
three Years, since I was sworn at the Inferiour Court.

1. “Upon a motion made by Jeremy Gridley Esqr. the Oath of an Attorney by the province
Law prescribed was administred to Messrs. Samuel Quincy and John Adams in Order to
their practising in this Court” (Superior Court of Judicature, Records, 1760–1762, p. 239). For the attorney’s oath, adopted in 1701, { 225 } see Province Laws, 1:467. In his Autobiography JA merged his admission as an attorney in the Superior Court with his admission as a
barrister the following year.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0006-0011-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1761-11-20

Novr. 20th. 1761. Monday.

This day removed to my Chamber, and made a Fire. The Forenoon was Spent in Conversation
with Zab, in walking to Dr. Turners, and up Pens Hill, and this afternoon in Conversation
with Grindal Rawson and Zab at Mrs. Marshes. Yet I have caught several snatches of
Reading and Thinking, in Blackstone, Gilbert &c. But I, as usual, expect great Things
from this Chamber, and this Winter.1

1. This entry fixes the date of JA’s fitting out and establishing himself in his law office in the house now known as
the John Quincy Adams Birthplace, which he had inherited from his father (see entry
of 24 Oct. 1762, note) and which the Savils must by now have vacated. The law office was in the southeast
room on the ground floor and JA opened a new doorway into it from the street. During the 19th century the doorway
was boarded over but it has since been restored. See Waldo C. Sprague, The President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams Birthplaces, Quincy, 1959 (unpaged).

Rode from Bass’s to Secretary Olivers, in Company with Judge Oliver.2 The Judge soon opened upon Politicks. Says he, Major Stock-bridge informs me, that
Coll. Ruggles makes a very good Speaker. He has behaved to universal approbation.

Soon afterwards, the Judge said, I never knew so easy an Election in my Life. Some
of the Bar interest themselves, very much in the Matter. One Gentleman has interested
himself most infamously, advanced that to be Law in the House which is not Law.—That
the Judges cant set in the House of Commons is certain because there is an Act of
Parliament against it. But the Judges may set and vote in the House of Lords—i.e.
they may if they are Peers. Ld. Mansfield—think he dont set and vote.3—How can the Bar expect Protection from the Court, if the Bar endeavours to bring
the Court into Contempt. He is forever abusing the Court. He said not long since in
the Representatives Room, that take all the superiour Judges and every Inferiour Judge
in the Province, and put them all together and they would not make one half of a Common
Lawyer.

I said upon this “That was a distracted Speech. It is a pitty, that Gentleman was
not better guided. He has many fine Talents.” The Judge replyed quick, I have known
him these 20 Years and I have no opinion of his Head or his Heart. If Bedlamism is
a Talent he has it in Perfection.4

He will one Time say of the Lieutenant Governor, that he had rather have him than
any Man he knows, in any one office, and the next Hour will represent him as the greatest
Tyrant, and most despicable Creature living.

I have treated him with as much Friendship as ever I did a stranger in my Life, and
he knows very well how he has treated me. I blush even to think of what he has said
to me.

I have him in the Utmost Contempt. I have the Utmost Contempt of him. I had as live
[lief] say it to him as not. I have the Utmost Contempt of him.

I have been twelve Years concerned in the Executive Courts, and I never knew so much
ill Usage, given to the Court by all the Lawyers in the Province put it all together
for all that Time, as I have known him give in one Term.

The origin of all his Bustle is very well known. I heard a Gentleman say he would
give his oath, that Otis said to him if his father was not made a Judge, he would
thro the Province into flames if it cost him his Life. For that one Speech, a Thousand
other Persons would have been indicted.

1. First entry in D/JA/8, a stitched gathering of leaves in a paper cover evidently added
later and docketed by CFA: “Paper book. No. 8.” At some unknown time this booklet strayed from the Adams Papers
and was returned with an accompanying letter from Charles P. Greenough to CFA2, 2 July 1913, saying: “I found the enclosed among my papers and it occurred to me
that you might be interested. I can’t for the life of me remember where and when I
got it.” Three days later CFA2 sent on the estray with a note to Worthington C. Ford at the MHS, remarking that
“The whole thing is very mysterious and very unpleasant.” (Greenough was a Boston
autograph collector. The letters here quoted are in the Adams Papers, Fourth Generation.)

The present booklet contains only a handful of scattered entries dating from June
to Dec. 1762. Little documentation survives to fill the seven-month gap between the
last preceding Diary entries and the beginning of D/JA/8, and very little either to
fill the gaps in the latter. In the spring JA was concerned with the sale by the town of its South Commons (see Braintree Town Records, p. 383–384, 386). By fall he was actively courting Miss Nabby Smith of Weymouth
(see his letter of 4 Oct. 1762, Adams Papers). He was also much occupied this year with improving the property he had inherited
from his father in 1761 (see entry of 24 Oct., below).

2. Peter Oliver, Harvard 1730, a judge of the Plymouth co. Court of Common Pleas since 1747 (later chief justice
of the Superior Court of Judicature and an eminent loyalist), was a younger brother
of Andrew Oliver, secretary of the Province (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates, 8:737–763).

3. The dash in this sentence has been supplied to clarify it. Oliver is discussing the
election of a speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the session
that had begun on 26 May. Though James Otis Sr. was unanimously elected to succeed
himself in this office, he declined to serve because “his living at such a Distance
rendered his constant Attendance very uncertain.” Thereupon Timothy Ruggles was nominated
and elected (Mass., House Jour., 1762–1763, p. 5). The account of this incident in Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates, 9:207–208, confuses Otis Sr. with Otis Jr. But of course it was the younger { 227 } Otis who Oliver thought had “interested himself most infamously” in attempting to
block Ruggles’ election on the ground that judges ought not to sit in the House. (Ruggles
was chief justice of the Worcester Court of Common Pleas.)

4. Oliver’s observations, though not in quotation marks, no doubt extend through the
end of this entry.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0007-0001-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1762-06-08

June 8th. 1762.

Went to Taunton Court. To the Land of Leonards. Three Judges of the Common Pleas of
that Name, each of whom has a Son, who was bred at a Colledge.

The Honl. George Leonard, the first Justice, seems to me arbitrary. He committed two
old Gentlemen who were near 80 Years old, to the Custody of an officer, only for speaking
loud, when they were both deaf and not conscious that they did speak loud. A Check,
a Reproof, an Admonition, would have been enough.

He was unwilling that the sessions should adjourn for an Hour to take the Verdict
of the Jury, in a Tryal upon a Presentment of a Riot, but would have had that Jury
kept together all Night, till the Court should set again next Morning. No other Court
in the Province, Superiour nor Inferiour, would have thought of keeping that Jury
up.

He broke in most abruptly upon Bob Paine. He did not think it was right to run out
against the Kings Witnesses. For his Part He did not love to hear it.—Three or four
Times over—&c. Thus the hauty Tyrant treats the County.

I lodged the first Night at Corsmans [Crossmans], the second at Major Leonards of Rainham and the third at Captn. Cobbs with Paine.
I dined the first day I was there wednesday at Captn. Cobbs with Coll. Otis and Paine,
and the second at Coll. Whites. Drank Tea once at Coll. Whites with the three young
Leonards, George, Zeph. and Daniel,1 and I spent two Evenings at Cobbs with Coll. Otis, and Paine. And I rode from Taunton
to Milton, with Coll. Otis. He is vastly easy and steady in his Temper. He is vastly
good humoured and sociable and sensible. Learned he is not. But he is an easy, familiar
Speaker. He gave me many Anecdotes both of his Law and Politicks.

1. Daniel Leonard, Harvard 1760, attorney, loyalist, and author of the “Massachusettensis” papers, 1774–1775, to
which JA replied over the name “Novanglus.” On the Leonards and their circle (including a
number of the persons mentioned here), see Ralph Davol, Two Men of Taunton, Taunton, 1912, passim.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0007-0002-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1762-08-15

Aug. 15th. 1762.

Reading, Thinking, Writing—have I totally renounced all three? Tempora mutantur, et
nos mutamur in illis. Yesterday I found in some { 228 } of Crafts Books of Heraldry, a Coat of Arms given by Garter, King at Arms, about 130
Years ago, to one William Adams of the Middle Temple, Counsellor at Law. It consists
of Three Martlets sable, on a Bend between two O’s—bezants.

October 22nd. 1762.

Spent last Monday in taking Pleasure, with Mr. Wibird. Met him in the Morning at Mr.
Borlands, rode with him, to Squantum, to the very lowest Point of the Peninsula, next
to Thompsons Island, to the high steep Rock, from where the Squaw threw herself, who
gave the Name to the Place.1 It is an hideous Craggy Precipice, nodding over the Ocean forty feet in hight. The
Rocks seem to be a vast Collection of Pebbles, as big as hens Eggs, thrown into melted
Cement, and cooled in. You may pull them to Pieces with your Fingers, as fast as you
Please.

Various have been the Conjectures of the Learned, concerning this sort of Rocks. Upon
this Part of the Peninsula, is a Number of Trees, which appear very much like the
Lime Tree, of Europe, which Gentlemen are so fond of Planting in their Gardens for
their beauty.

Returned to Mr. Borlands, dined, and after noon rode to Germantown, where we spent
our Evening. Deacon Palmer shewed us his Lucern, growing in his Garden, of which he
has cutt, as he tells us, four Crops this Year. The Deacon had his Lucern seeds of
Mr. Green-leaf, of Abington, who had his of Judge Oliver. The Deacon watered his but
twice this summer, and intends to expose it uncovered, to all the Weather of the Winter
for a fair Tryal, whether it will endure our Winters or not. Each of his four Crops
had attained a good Length. It has a rich fragrance for a Grass. He shewed us a Cut
of it, in “Nature displayed,” and another of St. Foin, and another of Trefoil. The
Cut of the Lucern was exact enough. The Pod in which the seeds are is an odd Thing,
a kind of Rams horn or [straw?].

We had a good deal of Conversation upon Husbandry. The Deacon has about 70 Bushells
of Potatoes, this Year on about 1/4 of an Acre of Ground.

Trees of several sorts considered. The wild Cherry Tree. Bears a Fruit of some Value.
The Wood is very good for the Cabinet-Maker, and is not bad to burn. It is a tree
of much Beauty. Its leaves and Bark are handsome, and its shape.—The Locust, good
Timber, fattening to soil, by its Leaves, Blossoms &c. Good Wood, quick growth, &c.—The
{ 229 } Larch Tree. There is but one in the Country, that in the Lieutenant Governors Yard
at Milton. It looks somewhat like an Evergreen but is not. Sheds its Leaves.

I read in Thompsons Travels, in Turkey in Asia, mention of a Turpentine called by
the Name of the Turpentine of Venice, which is not the Produce of Venice but of Dauphinè,
and flows from the Larch Tree. It is thick and balsamic and used in several Arts,
particularly that of Enameling.

1. On the legend from which the neck of land still known as Squantum (forming the eastern
shore of the mouth of the Neponset River) was supposed to have derived its name, see
Pattee, Old Braintree and Quincy, p. 20, note.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0007-0003-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1762-10-23

Octr. 23rd. 1762.

At my Swamp. Saw several Ginger Bushes. They Grow in Bunches like Willows and Alders,
in low Grounds, between Upland and Meadows. They grow Eight feet high, and about an
Inch thro at the Butt. They have Bark of a dark Colour, speckled over with little,
white rough Spots, near the Ends of the Bows [Boughs] they branch out into a Multitude of little Sprigs. The Bush I saw had shed all its
Leaves. All over the Branches and sprigs, are little fresh Buds at this season. It
has a spicy Taste. The Spriggs and Buds and Bark have a spicy Taste.

Octr. 24th. 1762.

Before [sun]rise. My Thoughts have taken a sudden Turn to Husbandry.1 Have contracted with Jo. T[irrell?] to clear my swamp and to build me a long string of stone Wall, and with Isaac [Tirrell?] to build me 16 Rods more and with Jo Field to build me 6 Rods more. And my Thoughts
are running continually from the orchard to the Pasture and from thence to the swamp,
and thence to the House and Barn and Land adjoining. Sometimes I am at the orchard
Ploughing up Acre after Acre and Planting, pruning Apple Trees, mending Fences, carting
Dung. Sometimes in the Pasture, digging stones, clearing Bushes, Pruning Trees, building
Wall to redeem Posts and Rails, and sometimes removing Button Trees down to my House.
Sometimes I am at the old swamp, burning Bushes, digging stumps and Roots, cutting
Ditches, across the Meadow, and against my Uncle, and am sometimes at the other End
of the Town, buying Posts and Rails, to { 230 } Fence against my Uncle and against the Brook, and am sometimes Ploughing the Upland,
with 6 Yoke of oxen, and planting Corn, Potatoes, &c. and digging up the Meadow and
sowing onions, planting cabbages &c. &c.

Sometimes I am at the Homestead running Cross Fences, and planting Potatoes by the
Acre, and Corn by the two Acres, and running a Ditch along the Line between me and
Field, and a Fence along the Brook [against] my Brother and another Ditch in the Middle from Fields Line to the Meadow. Sometimes
am Carting Gravel from the Neighboring Hills, and sometimes Dust from the streets
upon the fresh Meadow. And sometimes plowing, sometimes digging those Meadows, to
introduce Clover and other English Grasses.

1. Deacon John Adams had died 25 May 1761. Under his Will, which was proved 10 July 1761
(copy in Adams Papers, Wills and Deeds), JA received a smaller bequest than his younger brothers because he had been given “a
Libberal Education.” He did, however, come into possession of substantial property:
the cottage occupied by Dr. Savil and now known as the John Quincy Adams Birthplace,
a barn, and 10 acres of adjoining land, together with some 30 acres of orchard, pasture,
and woodland elsewhere in the town. His brother Peter Boylston inherited the Deacon’s
homestead (the John Adams Birthplace) and a larger farm, which in 1774 JA consolidated with his own (JA, notes on the copy of his father’s Will in Adams Papers). As the present entry suggests, the young farmer’s improvements to his property
began promptly, and though there were long intervals when public office kept him away
from his farm, they ended only with his death.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0007-0004-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1762-11-05

November 5th. 1762.

The Cause of Jeffries Town Treasurer of Boston and Sewal and Edwards and several others
being suits for the Penalties arising by the Law of the Province for building and
covering those Building[s] not with slate nor Tile but with shingles.1

Mr. Gridley made a Motion that those Actions should be dismissed because the Judges
were all Interested in the Event of them. Two of the Judges vizt. Wells and Foster
Hutchinson, being Inhabitants of Boston, and the other two vizt. Eliakim Hutchinson
and Watts, having real Estates in that Town, to the Poor of which those Penalties
are appropriated. After a long Wrangle, as usual when Trowbridge is in a Case, the
Court determined to continue the Action, that Application might be made to the Governor
and Council for Special Judges. Wells and Foster declining to set, and Watts too.

The Case of a Witness was mentioned in the Argument. A Witness cannot depose, when
he is interested. A Juryman may be challenged who is interested. But Persons belonging
to Corporations, are allowed for the Necessity to testify, in Cases where those Corporations
are in• { 231 } terested. And Jurymen and Judges belonging to this Province sat in the Case of Gray
and Paxton, tho interested, for the Necessity.

This Motion Mr. G. said could not be reduced to a Written Plea. He could not plead
to the Jurisdiction of the Court. The Court of Common Pleas had undoubted Jurisdiction
of the Cause but the Judges could not set because interested. Their Honours were not
the Court of Common Pleas but the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas. The Court
of Common Pleas was a Body Politic, an invisible system, a frame in the Mind, a fiction
of the Law. The President and Fellows of H[arvard] Colledge are not H.C.

The Case in Strange was produced, in which Ld. Raymond went off the Bench, the Parish
of Abbots Langley in which his Lordship lived being interested. An order of 2 Justices
for the Removal of a Pauper, confined by the Sessions was carried to B.R.2 by Certiorari.

Authorities from Hobarts and Cokes Rep[orts] were produced, to shew the Tenderness of the Law for this Maxim that a Man shall
not be Judge in his own Cause, and that an Act of Parliament vs. natural Equity as
that a Man should be judge in his own Cause would be void.

Mem. After the Court had given Judgment Mr. Gridley moved for a Minute of the Reasons
of the Judgment. Wells said the Court was not accountable to the Bar for their Reasons.
But Otis said the Courts at Home never refused their Reasons for any Judgment when
the Bar requested them. Because if the Bar are left ignorant of the Reasons the Court
go upon, they will not know how to advise and direct their Clients. And after some
Debate, the Clerk was ordered to minute the Reason for the Continuance, which was
that three of the Judges apprehended themselves interested and so not a Court competent
to try the Cause.

G. contended that if the Court should continue the Causes, they could not refuse setting
on the Tryal, because, an Imparlance was a Judicial Act, and so an Assumption of Jurisdiction.
F[oster] H[utchinson] said that Dismissing the Actions would be a Judicial Act, as much as Continuing.

1. From the names of the judges mentioned in the next paragraph it is clear that this
case was tried in the Suffolk Inferior Court.

Novr. 30th. 1762.

Last Thurdsday Night, at Cranch’s Wedding, Dr. Tufts, in the Room where the Gentlemen
were, said We used to have on these Occasions, some good Matrimonial stories, to raise
our spirits.1 The { 232 } story of B. Bicknal’s Wife is a very clever one. She said, when she was married she
was very anxious, she feared, she trembled, she could not go to Bed. But she recollected
she had put her Hand to the Plow and could not look back, so she mustered up her Spirits,
committed her soul to G[od] and her Body to B. Bicknal and into Bed she leaped—and in the Morning she was amazed,
she could not think for her Life what it was that had scared her so.

2. This could be either Robert Treat Paine or, less likely, Joseph Palmer.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0007-0005-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1762-12-28

Decr. 28th. 1762.

Mr. Cranch last fryday night discovered some Instances of his skill at a Bargain.
He agreed to give Greenleaf £120 old Ten[or] for his Chaise. The Chaise is old, the Leather damnifyed thro careless Usage, the
Wheels almost ruined, the spokes being loose &c., but G. asked that Price and he could
not beat him down, he could not ask him to take less, because G. was poor, and it
would look like Ungenerosity or Narrowness of Purse to desire it for less. This he
was headstrong enough to do, against the Parsons repeated and enforced Advice. But
a worse Instance of his Tameness and Credulity happened afterwards. G. offered him
his Horse, told him the Horse stood him in £10 L.M.1 and was an excellent Horse in the Harness tho unpleasant in a saddle. Cranch believed
every Word he said, and was so secret about his Bargain, that he would not make it
before me, who was then at his House but he must finish it, abroad, without Questioning
the Horses Virtues or Abilities, or asking any Questions about the Price. He is to
give £50 for the Horse. I would not give £10, for he is dull and lean, and weak, looks
meanly and goes worse.—Thus the Man was fairly cheated in Jockey language out of £50,
in one Hour. Besides his Buying the Horse was a Piece of ridiculous Foppery, at this
Time. He had no Occasion for one. He cannot use one much this Winter, and it will
cost him 3 Times so much as that Horse is worth to keep him till spring.

Miserably bubbled by his own Vanity and Credulity.

1. New England “lawful money,” which was worth slightly more than seven times “old tenor”
money.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0007-0005-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1762-12-30

Boston. Decr. 30th.

At Goldthwaits office, spent 1/4 of an Hour with Lt. Govr. Hutch• { 233 } inson. The first thing he said was a Question to Goldthwait, what was the Date of
the Earlyest Records of the County Court? Goldthwait answered 1670. His Honor replyed
there were County Courts for 40 Years before that—and said he wanted to settle something
in his own Mind, concerning the origin and Constitution of the Courts. That Adultery
was punished with death, by the first settlers, and many other offences were made
capital, that are not now so. That Commissioners were sent over by K[ing] C[harles] in 1665, to enquire into the Constitution of the Colonies, tho their Authority was
not owned. Goldthwait said, there were a great many odd Entries. One of a Prosecution
of a Man for taking 6d. for an Horse, a Braintree man too, as unjust and unrighteous.
His Honor told of a Record of a Woman condemned, for Adultery, because a Man had debauched
her when she was drunk, and of another of a Boy imprisoned for a Capital Tryal for
some of their trifling capital Crimes, stealing from his Master or something, which
Boy was liberated by the Commissioners of 1665.

The story of Prats Death was told. His Honor said it would be a Loss to his family.
He was in a fair Way to have raised it. But the New Yorkers will be glad of it.—This
to be sure was Familiarity and Affability! But Goldthwait cringed down, and put on
the timid, fawning face and Air and Tone.

Last Thurdsday afternoon, rode to Germantown, and there stayed at my friend Cs. till
the last Night. Four Nights, and four days. Those 2 families well deserve the Character
they hold of friendly, sensible, and Social.2 The Men, Women and Children, are all sensible and obliging.

Mem. The notable Anecdote of Coll. Josa. Quincy. The Hydrostatical Experiment. And
the other of Mrs. Lincoln, equally curious and instructive. The Pinching, and the
Sprinkling, &c.

Mem. The other Anecdote of Mr. Erving. He has prophesyed so long, and with so much
Confidence that Canada would be restored to the French that, because he begins to
see his Predictions will not be fullfilled, he is now straining his Invention for
Reasons, why we ought not to hold it. He says, the Restoration of that Province can
alone prevent our becoming luxurious, effeminate, inattentive to any Danger and so
an easy Prey to an Invader. He was so soundly bantered, the other day in the Council
Chamber, that he snatched his Hat and Cloak and went off, in a Passion.

Mem. The other of a Piece sent to Fleet to be printed, upon the Unfitness of Mr. Mauduit
to represent this Province, at the british Court, both in Point of Age and Knowledge.
He is as that Writer says 70 Years old, an honest Man but avaricious, a Woolen Draper,
a mere Cit, so ignorant of Court and public Business, that he knew not where the public
offices were, and that he told Mr. Bollan, that he was Agent for New England. He says
that all the other Agents laugh at this Province, for employing him. And that all
Persons on that Side of the Water are surprized at us. That the Considerations on
the present German War, were written by a Person unknown, who hired or persuaded Mr.
Mauduitt to father it.3

Ob[servation]. The Character of Aunt Nell,4 exemplified. Mrs. Eunice5 told us the Catastrophe of two of her Teeth, she broke them out at Table in Company,
and to avoid exposing her self, swallowed them.

I spent an Evening at Mrs. Palmers. Mrs. E[uni]c[e] was very sociable, she had the lead all the Evening. Gave us History’s of her Journeys
with her Brother, to Connecticutt, to Barnstable, Plymouth, Middleborough, Norton,
&c. Descriptions of Seats and Roads, and Thicketts, Characters of Persons, of both
sexes, and the hospitable offices of strangers, &c., and above all the Tittle, Tattle
of the Town of Taunton, what Families Visit, and what not. The little female Miffs,
and Bickerings. Dr. Mclnsters [McKinstrys], McWaters’s, Fales, &c. &c.

The Temper and Habits of stale Virginity, are growing upon her. She is talkative.
Q[uery], whether envious, sullen and passionate? She is no slanderer. She is tender of Characters
and gives Merit its due Praise. The History of her Loves is curious, but not uncommon.

[ . . . ] or Di. was a constant feast.6 Tender feeling, sensible, friendly. A friend. Not an imprudent, not an indelicate,
not a disagreeable Word or Action. Prudent, modest, delicate, soft, sensible, obliging,
active.

Where all was full, possessing and possest

no craving Void left Aching in the Breast.

Books, we read 5 Sermons in Dr. Shirlock [Sherlock], and several Chapters in the Inquiry into the origin of our Ideas of the Sublime
and the beautiful.7 The Chapter upon Sympathy, they all disapprove. The Author says we have a real Pleasure,
in the Distresses and Misfortunes of others. Mem. To write a Letter to Sewal or Quincy,
or Lowell8 on the subject of that Chapter.

I employed however, too little of my Time in Reading and in Thinking. I might have
spent much more. The Idea of M. de Vattell indeed, scowling and frowning, haunted
me.

Q. Do we take Pleasure in the real Distresses of others? What is my Sensation, when
I see Captn. Cunningham, laid up, with the Gout, and hear his plaintive Groans? What
are the feelings of the Women, at Groanings? What is my feeling when I hear of an
honest Mans loosing a ship at Sea? What when I hear [sentence unfinished]

1. First entry in “Paper book No. 9” (our D/JA/9), a stitched gathering of leaves containing
a few entries in Feb. 1763, a draft of a newspaper article that could not have been
written before late June 1763, and some undated entries. The entries are not in chronological
order in the MS.

This booklet contains the only Diary entries surviving for the year 1763. Fragmentary
lists of JA’s legal cases show that his practice was rapidly expanding, at least in the lower
courts, and this year too he began to write with some frequency for the Boston newspapers.
His surviving correspondence for 1763 is virtually all with Miss Abigail Smith of
Weymouth.

2. The Cranches and Palmers. Mrs. Palmer was a sister of Richard Cranch.

3. In April 1762 the House voted to remove William Bollan, who had been Provincial agent
in London since 1746 but was disliked by the Otises and others as a Churchman and
a son-in-law of former Governor Shirley. He was replaced by Jasper Mauduit, a London
woolen merchant and dissenter. Mauduit was dependent on his brother Israel, author
of the tract mentioned in the text, for assistance, but their friends in Massachusetts
failed to obtain a stipend for Israel as associate agent. The correspondence in Jasper Mauduit... 1762–1765 (MHS, Colls., 74 [1918]) makes clear the sentiments and maneuvers of all parties in this petty
but complex affair. See also 15 Aug. 1765, below.

6. One would like to believe that this refers to Abigail Smith, sister of the recently
married Mary (Smith) Cranch. In the letters they exchanged at this time both Abigail
and JA used the fanciful name Diana for her. But the preceding initial, which may be “H,”
cannot be explained.

7. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, by Edmund Burke, was published anonymously in London, 1757.

8. John Lowell, Harvard 1760, of Newburyport, trained or still training in the office of Oxenbridge Thacher for
the bar; later a member of the Continental Congress and a federal judge.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0008-0001-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1763-02-05

Feb. 5th. 1763.

Memorabilia of this Week.

The Bar agreed upon these 4 Rules.

1st. That the Clerk call the Plain tiff, and if any Body answer, except the Plaintiff
or some sworn Attorney, his Power be demanded, and no general Power in such Case be
admitted.

2dly. That no Attorneys Fee be taxed for the future where the Declaration was not
drawn by the Plaintiff himself, or some sworn Attorney.

3dly. That no attendance be taxed, unless the Party attend personally, or by some
sworn Attorney.

4. That no Attorney be allowed to Practice here unless sworn in this Court1 or in the superiour Court.

Mr. Gridley read these Rules to the Court as unexceptionable Regulations, agreed upon
by the Bar. Mr. Otis arose and said he had the Credit of the Motion, but he never
had moved for any such Rules as these, for they were vs. the Province Law, vs. the
Rights of Mankind, and he was amazed that so many wise Heads as that Bar was blessed
with could think them practicable, and concluded that he was for one, entirely against
them. And said that all schemes to suppress Petty fogger’s must rest on the Honor
of the Bar. Foster Hutchinson asked why then was the Court troubled with the Motion?
Judge Watts said if the Bar was not agreed the Court could do nothing. And at last
they determined to consider till April.

Thus with a whiff of Otis’s pestilential Breath, was this whole system blown away.

But the Barr was in a great Rage!

Thatcher said to K[ent], A[uchmuty] and me, “whoever votes for him to be any Thing more than a Constable let him be Anathema
maranatha. I pamphleteer for him again? No. Ile pamphleteer against him.

K[en]t damned him and said he had been abused by him personally, in such a manner as he
never would forgive, unless he made him more satisfaction, than he imagined was in
his Power.

Thatcher moved, that in the Cards to be sent to the Judges, the Expression should
be “The Bar, exclusively of Mr. Otis, invites,” and Auchmuty, Kent, Gridley and I,
as well as Thatcher voted for it.

Auchmuty and Fitch were equally warm. They talked about renouncing all Commerce or
Connection with him. Gridley talked about treating him dryly and decently.

Auchmuty said, the two Principles of all this were Popularity, and Avarice.

He made the Motion at first to get some of these Under strappers into his service.
He could not bear that Q[uincy] and Auch. should have Underworkers and he none. And he objected to the Rules, to
save his Popularity, with the Constables, Justices Story and Ruddock &c. and Pettyfoggers
of the Town, and with the Pettyfoggers that he uses as Tools and Mirmidons in the
House.

Mr. G. said he went off to avoid a Quarell, for he could not bear it. Such Tergiversation,
such Trimming, such Behaviour.

K. and Auch. said they had born with his Insolence thinking him honest, tho hot and
rash and passionate, but now he appeared to act against his Conscience.

Take of the several Species of Malevolence, as Revenge, Malice, Envy, equal Quantities,
of servility, fear, fury, Vanity, Prophaneness, and Ingratitude, equal Quantities,
and infuse this Composition into the Brains of an ugly, surly, brutal Mortal and you
have the Desideratum.

The Life of Furio.

In Croatia. His Descent. Education, at school, Colledge, at the Bar. Historians relate
that he was grossly slandered, by a story of a Bastard on a Negro, his Wrath at Plymouth,
at Boston he Heads the Trade, brings Actions, fails, is chosen Representative, quarrells
with Governor, Lieutenant [Governor], Council, House, Custom house officers, Gentlemen of the Army, the Bar, retails prosody,
writes upon Money, Prov[ince] sloop.

Feby. 11th. 1763.

Probate of Mr. Edwards’s Will, Coram Governor and Council. John Edwards, one of the
Heirs at Law of Samuel Edwards, appealed from the Decree of the Judge of Probate,
1st. because said Saml. at the Execution of said Writing and long after was not, nor
for a long time before had been of a sound and disposing Mind and Memory, but was
non Compos.

Quaere. What is an Insanity, in Law? that disqualifies to make testament? and whether
Saml. Edwards was so insane. Woods Inst. Page 336. Those who have not a sound, perfect
and disposing Mem• { 238 } ory, for it is not sufficient that the Testator hath a Memory. 6. Rep. 23. Lunaticks
in their Lucid Intervals may.

Dissertation on the word “perfect.” A perfect Memory exists not—i.e. a Memory retentive
of every Idea that ever was in the Mind. Nor is the Man who has the strongest Memory
always the fittest to make a Will. For the observation is very common that Men of
the strongest Memories have not always the soundest Judgments. The Memory of Xerxes
or of Caesar is not necessary to make a Will.

2nd. of James.

Our Case. I promise to pay A or order. I have paid A. and now I must pay the order
too.1

1. At this point in the MS appears the draft of JA’s essay, signed “U.,” which was printed in the Boston Gazette, 18 July 1763. The draft is printed below under that date, following the other entries in this booklet, all
of which were undoubtedly written earlier than the essay even in its draft form.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0008-0001-0005

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1763-02

Boston Feby. 1763.

This day learned that the Caucas Clubb meets at certain Times in the Garret of Tom
Daws, the Adjutant of the Boston Regiment.1 He has a large House, and he has a moveable Partition in his Garrett, which he takes
down and the whole Clubb meets in one Room. There they smoke tobacco till you cannot
see from one End of the Garrett to the other. There they drink Phlip I suppose, and
there they choose a Moderator, who puts Questions to the Vote regularly, and select
Men, Assessors, Collectors, Wardens, Fire Wards, and Representatives are Regularly
chosen before they are chosen in the Town. Uncle Fairfield,2 Story, Ruddock, Adams,3 Cooper, and a rudis indigestaque Moles of others are Members. They send Committees
to wait on the Merchants Clubb and to propose, and join, in the Choice of Men and
Measures. Captn. Cunningham4 says they have often solicited him to go to these Caucas, they have assured him Benefit
in his Business, &c.5

2 Levinz. Scroaggs [Scroggs] C.J. It ought not to be a general Rule, that Members of Corporations shall or shall
not be a Witness. But where the Int[erest] is inconsiderable they may.

Thatcher. It is a Rule that the Heir apparent shall not tho a Rem[ainde]r man shall be admitted because the last has no present Interest. A Guardian shall
not be a Witness in Cause for his Ward because he is Party to the suit.

Auch[muty]. Proprs. Worcester v. Gates, the Inhabitants of Worcester were Admitted on Argument.

1. Thomas Dawes, a bricklayer and militia officer, lived in Purchase Street, which ran eastwardly
off Sumner close to the South End wharves (Thwing Cat.). This was therefore the South End “caucus”; see note 5, below.

2. Presumably a relative of Samuel Adams, whose mother was born Mary Fyfield—a name spelled
in a great variety of ways. JA frequently used “Uncle” or “Aunt” for an older person vaguely related to himself.

3. This is the first mention in the Diary of Samuel Adams the politician, with whom JA was to be closely associated for a dozen or fifteen years to come despite sharp temperamental
differences between the two men. JA and Sam Adams had the same great-grandfather, the 1st Joseph Adams of Braintree,
son of Henry Adams the immigrant. Sam Adams’ grandfather was John, a younger brother
of JA’s grandfather, the 2d Joseph of Braintree (Bartlett, Henry Adams of Somersetshire, p. 58).

5. The foregoing description, though only hearsay, is so vivid as to have become famous.
According to William Gordon, writing before 1788, the Boston “caucuses” had been long
established by 1763. “More than fifty years ago, Mr. Samuel Adams’s father, and twenty
others, one or two from the north end of the town, where all the ship business is
carried on, used to meet, make a caucus, and lay their plan for introducing certain
persons into places of trust and power. When they had settled it, they separated,
and used each their particular influence within his own circle” by distributing ballots
for the candidates agreed upon, &c. (The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United
States of America, London, 1788, 1:365, note). Thus Sam Adams in some measure inherited his influence in these local
political associations, the equivalent of ward clubs today, and at the time this Diary
entry was written he was beginning to use that influence to fan the sparks of protest
against royal authority into what became organized rebellion. The best account of
the Boston caucuses, which were soon to emerge as the Sons of Liberty, is in Esther
Forbes, Paul Revere, p. 119 ff.; see also John C. Miller, Sam Adams, Pioneer in Propaganda, Boston, 1936, passim. More detailed study of their membership and activities is still needed.

Elsewhere in the note cited above, William Gordon remarked that the terms caucus and caucusing were commonly used in Boston, “but my repeated applications to different gentlemen
have not furnished me with a satisfactory account of [their] origin.” There is still
no satisfactory account though numerous explanations have been proposed. John Pickering,
who compiled the first collection of Americanisms, suggested that since the meetings
Gordon described were held where “ship-business [was] carried on,” the word caucus “might be a corruption of Caulkers, the word meetings being understood,” and he found that this was a common opinion
in Boston and Salem (A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases ... Peculiar to the United States of
America, Boston, 1816, p. 57). Whether correct or not, Pickering’s explanation is certainly more plausible
than that preferred by the latest authority, the Dictionary of Americanisms, namely that caucus derives from medieval Latin caucus, after Greek kaukos, a drinking vessel.

The early spellings of the word render this learned explanation extremely doubtful.
Before Gordon’s History no example spelled in the form that became standard in the 19th century has been
found. Both the Dictionary of Americanisms and the earlier Dictionary of American English cite the form “West-Corcus in Boston” from the Boston Evening Post, suppl., 19 Aug. 1745, but the former authority rather surprisingly considers it
probably “without significance.” To the contrary, it would seem to be very significant,
since a little later { 240 } the caucus clubs were closely associated with districts of the town. The next recorded
use is in a letter from Oxenbridge Thacher in Boston to Benjamin Prat in New York,
without date but certainly written in 1762: “we daily see many of your predictions
accomplished respecting the connections and discords of our politicians, corkusmen,
plebeian tribunes, &ca., &ca.” (MHS, Procs., 1st ser., 20 [1882–1883]:48). In the present double use by JA both spellings are clearly “Caucas” in the MS, though “corrected” by CFA in printing the Diary. Two other early examples are worth citing. In the satirical
song on James Otis entitled “Jemmibullero,” published in the Boston Evening Post, 13 May 1765, this line appears: “And Jemmy’s in the CAUCAS, and Jemmy’s in the REPS.”
In a letter to James Warren, 22 Dec. 1773, JA wrote: “Yesterday, the Governor called a Council at Cambridge. Eight Members met
at Brattles. This no doubt was concerted last Saturday, at Neponsit Hill [Governor Hutchinson’s residence in Milton], where Brattle and Russell dined, by Way of Caucass I suppose” (MHi: Warren-Adams Coll.). In the only text of this letter by JA that has been published, the spelling is regularized to “caucus” (JA, Works, 9:334).

6. Defendant’s name omitted in MS, but this case, an action of ejectment in Suffolk Superior Court, Feb. term, 1763,
is reported more fully in Quincy, Reports, p. 36–37.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0008-0001-0006

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1763-02

Feb.

This Action of Trover is an Innovation, one of the new and subtle Inventions in Derogation
of the Common Law, that my Lord Coke has treated with so much righteous severity.
It is in its Effects and Consequences subversive of all real Actions. It will destroy
one of the strongest securities of our landed Property, the Rule that all real Titles1 shall be tryed in the County where the Land lies. That it may be employed as an Instrument
of endless Vexation to the poor People who live in distant Counties, who has the Honor
of being the first Inventor I know not, but I hope your Honors will crush it as the
illegitimate Production of a wanton Hour.2

It is true that, an incidental Question about a local Matter, may [be] decided, in the Tryal of a transitory Action—and it is equally true that, [a] Question may be tryed incidentally, by a Court that has no direct and original Jurisdiction
of that Question. Multa conceduntur, per obliquum quse non conceduntur de directo.
But this is never suffered but in Cases of Necessity—where Justice cannot be done
without it. And This Necessity seems to have been the sole Foundation of my Ld. Holts
Opinion in the Case of Brown and Hedges. His Opinion was that an Incidental Question
about the Title of Land should not bar the Plaintiff, because if it should, a Man
might commit Wastes and Trespasses in Ireland, then take his flight to England and
Escape Justice, for no Proscess from any Court in Ireland could run into England:
Remedy must be sought in England or no where. But in these Cases there is no such
Necessity. Actions may be brought { 241 } in the County where the Lands lie, with the same Ease, and with much better Probability
of fair and just Decision than out of them.

Dream of Mr. Pratt. He was seated on a Rock, in the Middle of the Sea, and reflecting
on his Journey to N. York,3 leaving his family &c, when the Clouds began to rise from all Quarters of the Horison,
and soon thickened and blackened over his Head. The Thunders began to roar And the
Lightnings to flash. At last, the Clouds opened and a glorious Luminary, in the shape
of an Angel, made its Appearance and addressed Mr. Prat in these Lines

Why mourns the Bard? Apollo bids thee rise,

renounce the Dust, and Claim [thy] native skies.

Minutes of Dr. Marshes Testimony.

I was sent for. Mr. Edwards knew me, asked after my Health, and called me by my Name.

Afterward he gave me, by Word of Mouth the Minute of his Will. He said he intended
to give his Wife, the Improvement of his whole Estate during Life. The Thought it
seems came into his Mind of giving her the Improvement during her Widowhood, or while
she remained his Widow and bore his Name, but that Thought he had Memory and Judgment
enough to disapprove, and ordered it be given her for Life.

And after his Wifes Decease, he ordered his Estate to be divided equally between his
own and his Wifes nearest Relatives.

And when he was asked, who he intended to make his Executors, he replyed you two,
looking to his Brother Edwards and his Wifes Brother Smith who were then present.

The Degrees of Insanity, are infinite from the wildest symptoms of fury, when nothing
but Chains can withold the Patient from doing Violence to himself or others, down
to some fits of Passion, or some irrational Pangs of Affection. There is perhaps,
in every human Mind, in some appearance or another, some Spice or Degree of Madness.
The Hero that murders millions to sate his Revenge or Ambition, may surely by the
soundest Understanding be denominated a Madman. Yet Alexander, or Charles of Sweeden
had no doubt, a sufficient soundness of Mind to dispose of an Estate by Will. Nor
can a perfect Memory be demanded. A perfect Memory cannot be believed to exist. Even
Xerxes and Caesar, who remembered every face and Name in their Armies, had not perfect
Memories.

Affectation runs thro the whole Man. His Air, his Gate, his Tone, his Gestures, his
Pronunciation. There is no Steadiness of Eye or Feature.

Fitch’s Countenance is not Steady. He has a look of Jealousy, and of Diffidence. He
has a look of Conceit, affectation, Suspicion, and Diffidence. His swell. His Puff.
Gridley has a stedy and fixed face. His face is expressive. When he smiles, his whole
face is lighted up. His Lips do not shew a smile when his Brows are frounding, and
his Eye complaining. The Brow, the Eye, the Lips and the Voice all alike affected
together.

Trowbridge. Oh says Mr. G. They object and say a ——. The officer he informs—why In that Case—redendo
singula singulis.—Well—now—

Many of the great sages, Phylosophers and statesmen, ancient and modern, have thought
that the most effectual Exertion of their Talent Indulgence of the Benevolence for
Mankind was by contriving and recommending to youth, Plans of Education and study,
to train them early to right Habits of Thinking and of Acting, both for their own
private Happiness as well as for the Tranquility, Wealth, Grandeur and Glory of their
Country. I who have as much Benevolence, as any Sage, whatever, and Talents enough
to advize my own young Countrymen, beg leave to advize them, (lest any one should
suffer for want of such Advice tho I must own it is generally well understood that
they by all Means, avoid every Appearance of Regard to any of those Properties, formerly
respected under the Name of Wit, Humour, sense, Learning, Temperance, Justice, Industry,5

The Cyropedia of Xenophon, and the Treatises of Milton and { 243 } Lock upon Education, tho they might, (Longitude and Latitude considered) be well enough,
are yet manifestly useless, at this Time and in this Place. There is it must be confessed,
a natural faculty in the human mind (whether it sprang from the Protoplast or any
other source I leave to Metaphysitians), that distinguishes between true and false,
fair and foul, Virtue and Vice &c—Now the great Aim of the abovementioned Writers
on Education was to cultivate this faculty into the most delicate and exquisite Discernment:
But believe me, This faculty is become in the Revolution of human Things not only
useless, but destructive: believe me, the young man who is silly and obstinate enough
to see and to say he sees, one spark of Parts or Virtues in Bluster and his followers
e.g. shall with all the Benefactors to a man, be pronounced both a fool and a Knave:
shall be opposed and abused on all occasions: e. contra if he sees, and says he sees,
one fault, folly, Rashness, Indiscretion, Vice &c. in the same Persons or their Conduct,
they and theirs will pronounce the same heavy sentence upon him. It is exactly so
with the other side—if you have not a thourough Contempt for the Head and Detestation
of the Heart of Bluster and all his followers, you are at once a seditious fellow,
have no sense or Probity at all.6

So that the 1st Principle in Prov[incial] Education is to extinguish, stiffle, this most useless, troublesome, pernicious faculty,
called the moral sense, [and] cultivate a total and absolute Indifference to Virtue and to Vice: In spight of natural
Aversions press to your Bosom, with unbounded Confidence and Affection, the man who
is of your side, after you have chosen any side, tho he may be prostitute and abandoned,
destitute of every natural or moral Excellence.

2. Such as are Mad Persons can make no Testament during the time of their Insanity
of Mind, no not so much as ad Pios Usus. Nay the Testament made at such a Time shall
not be good, tho afterward the Party recover his former Understanding; howbeit, if
such Lunatick Persons have any Lucida Intervalla, or Intermissions then during the
Time of such Freedom from the Lunacy they may make their Testaments betwixt the fitts.
And here note, that every Person is presumed to be of perfect Mind and Memory, untill
the Contrary be proved. So that he that objecteth Insanity of Mind, must prove the
same, for which [quotation breaks off thus in MS]

Same Page 65. But regularly by the Laws and Customs of England, two Witnesses, without
Exception, are requisite for the due Proof of a Testament and two are sufficient.

Swinbourne 77th. Page 78. Unless the Testator were besides himself but for a short
Time and in some Peculiar Actions and not continually for a long space as for a Month
or More, &c.

78. It is a hard and difficult Point to prove a Man not to have the Use or Understanding
of Reason. And therefore, it is not sufficient for the Witnesses to depose that the
Testator was mad or besides his Wits: unless they render a sufficient Reason to prove
this their Deposition as that they did see him do such Things or heard him speak such
Words as a Man having Reason would not have done or spoken.

78. lower down. If some Witnesses do depose that the Testator was of perfect Mind
and Memory and others depose the Contrary, their Testimony is to be preferred which
depose that he was of sound Memory, as well for that their Testimony tendeth to the
favour And Validity of the Testament, as for that the same is more agreable to the
Disposition of Nature, for every man is a Creature reasonable.

79. But if in the Testament there be Mixture of Wisdom and Folly it is to be presumed
that the same was made during the Testators Frensy, insomuch that if there be but
one Word sounding to Folly, it is presumed that the Testator was not of sound Mind.

Godolphin. Page 24. For it is a very tender and difficult Point to prove a Man not
to have the Use of his Reason and Understanding; therefore it is not sufficient for
the Witnesses to depose that the Person was mad, unless they render upon Knowledge
a sufficient Reason therefor. Neither is one Witness sufficient to prove a Man mad,
nor two in Case the one depose of the Testators Madness at one Time and the other
of his Madness at another.

But in Contrary Depositions, those Witnesses are to be preferred, which depose that
the Testator was of sound Memory: And if he Used to have Intervals of Reason and it
be not certainly known, whether the Testament were made in or out of his fits of Lunacy;
if no Argument of frenzy or folly can be collected by the Testament, it shall be presumed
to be made during the Intermissions of the Lunacy, and so adjudged to be good.

One foolish Word may frustrate the Validity of the whole.

But if a Man who is of good and perfect Memory maketh his Will, and afterwards by
the Visitation of God, he becomes of Unsound { 245 } Memory (as every Man is for the most Part, before his death) this Act of God shall
not be a Revocation.

Dr. Groenvelt v. Dr. Burrell &c. Ld. Ray[mond] 252.

The Judge will not permit him to have a Copy of the Record if there was probable Cause
of the Indictment.

There must be Evidence of express Rancour and Malice, for Innocence is not sufficient
where it contains scandal or the Party has been imprisoned.

To be of sound and perfect Memory, is to have a reasonable Memory and Understanding
to dispose of his Estate with Reason. 25.8

The Testators mind is the Testaments chief Essential.

Regularly, the Law will presume every man to be of sound Mind and Memory, and will
cast the Onus Probandi on him who asserts the Contrary; which is but consonant to
the Presumption of Nature itself.

2. The foregoing notes, like those in the following paragraph, evidently relate to the
case of Gardiner v. Purrington, in Suffolk Superior Court, Feb. term, 1763; see Quincy, Reports, p. 59–62. The single other case that has been dated among the further detached legal
notes below, that of Swift v. Vose, was settled in the same session of the same court (Superior Court of Judicature, Minute Book 79). These circumstances would seem to warrant dating this whole series of legal
notes as Feb.–March 1763.

3. Benjamin Prat was appointed chief justice of New York in March 1761; JA describes in his Autobiography how the members of the bar “waited on” Prat to Dedham
when he left for his new post.

4. Fragmentary draft of an essay intended for publication; no printing has been found.
The figures in the salutation are illegible and have been guessed at; they are possibly
“20” and “30.” The first sentence, though much rewritten, is still defective.

5. Sentence breaks off thus in the MS, and a short interval of space follows, but the ensuing paragraphs appear to belong
to the same draft.

7. JA’s own copies of the works cited here and below in connection with the Edwards will
case are among bis books in the Boston Public Library: John Godolphin, The Orphan’s Legacy: or, A Testamentary Abridgement...., 4th edn., London, 1701; Henry Swinburne, A Treatise of Testaments and Last Wills, 5th edn., London, 1728.

8. Here and in the following paragraphs JA is again quoting from Godolphin’s Orphan’s Legacy.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0008-0002-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1763-07-18

[Draft of an Essay on Agriculture in the Boston Gazette, 18 July 1763.]1

Among the Votaries of Science, and the numerous Competitors for Fame and Estimation,
Utility seems to have been remarkably neglected. The Utmost subtlety of Wit, and all
the labours of pertina• { 246 } cious Industry have been employed by Mathematicians to demonstrate little, unimportant
Geometrical Niceties, or in searching for Demonstrations of other Propositions, which
there is not the least Probability will ever be found. Philosophers have employed
the Advantages of great Genius, Learning, Leisure, and Expense, in examining and displaying
before the World, the formation of Shells, and Pebbles, and Insects, in which Mankind
are no more interested, than they would be in a laborious Disquisition into or sage
Conjectures about the Number of sands in the Moon or of Particles in the solar system.
Many learned Pens are employed, much Time spent and much Mischeif and Malevolence
occasioned, by Divines about Predestination, [the] Original of Evil, and other abstruse subjects, that having been to no good Purpose
under learned Examination so many Centuries may by this Time be well enough concluded
unfathomable by the human Line.

But all this while, Agriculture, the Nursing Mother of every Art, Science, Trade and
Profession in civilized society, has been most ungratefully despized. It has been
too much so in Europe, but infinitely more so in America, and perhaps not the least
so in the Massachusetts Bay.

With Advantages of Soil, and Climate, that few Countries under Heaven can presume
to boast, will any intelligent Person believe, we do not raise our own Bread? Capable
as we are of making easily and at a very small Expence many very wholesome, palatable,
and delicate Liquors, will it be believed that we send abroad every Year, at a very
great Expence, for others that are unwholesome, disagreable and indelicate?

When it is in our Power, without any Difficulty, to raise many other Commodities,
enough not only for our own Consumption, but for Exportation, will it be credited
without surprize, that we send every Year, allmost the whole Globe over, to import
such Commodities for our own Use?

Yet all these Facts, incredible as they would seem to some worthy People, are indisputably
true. But it cannot long continue to be true. The sources of our Wealth are dried
away. And unless we seek for Resources, from Improvements in our Agriculture and an
Augmentation of our Commerce, we must forego the Pleasure of Delicacies and ornaments,
if not the Comfort of real Necessaries, both in Diet and Apparell.

The Intention of this Paper then is to intreat my worthy Countrymen who have any Advantages
of Leisure, Education, or Fortune to { 247 } amuse themselves, at convenient opportunities, with the study, and the Practice too,
of Husbandry. Nor let the narrow Circumstances of others who have Power to think and
Act, discourage them from exerting their talents in the same Way, for

haud facile emergunt, Quorum Virtutibus, obstat

Res angusta Domi—

with all its Truth and Pathos, has done more Mischief in the World by soothing the
Pride and Indolence of Genius, than it ever did good, by prompting the rich and Powerfull
to seek the solitary Haunts of Merit to amplify its sphere.

In making Experiments, upon the Varieties of soils, and Manures, Grains and Grasses,
Trees, and Bushes, and in your Enquiries into the Course and operation of Nature in
the Production of these, you will find as much Employment for your Ingenuity, and
as high a Gratification to a good Taste, as in any Business or Amusement you can chuse
to pursue. The finest Productions of the Poet or the Painter, the statuary or the
Architect, when they stand in Competition with the great and beautiful operations
of Nature, in the Animal and Vegetable World, must be pronounced mean and despicable
Baubles. The Mathematician, the Philosopher, the Chymist, and the Poet may here improve
every Branch of their favorite sciences to the Advancement of their Health, the Increase
of their Fortunes, and the Benefit of their Country.

But if I might descend without Presumption or offence to Particulars, I would recommend
both the Theory and Practice of Husbandry, to Divines and Physicians, more than to
any other orders.2 For the former having more Leisure and better opportunities for study than any Men,
will find this an agreable Relaxation from the arduous Labours of their Profession,
an excellent Exercise for the Preservation of their Health, a means of supplying their
families, with many Necessaries, at a trifling Expence that might otherwise cost them
dear; and an excellent Example of Ingenuity, and Industry, removing many Temptations
of Vice and Folly to the People under their Charge. Besides that their Acquaintance
with the sciences subservient to Husbandry, will give them great Advantages, and in
the Prosecution of such Enquiries, they will find their sentiments Exalted, their
Ideas of divine Attributes displayed in the scenes of Nature, improved, and their
Adoration of the great Creator and his Providence increased.

Physicians have many Advantages not only of the World in gen• { 248 } eral, but of other liberal Professions. The Principles of those sciences which subserve
more immediately their peculiar occupation are at the same Time the Foundation of
all real [and] rational Improvements in Husbandry. Necessitated as they are to much Travel and frequent
Conversations, with many sorts of People, they might, for their own Amusement and
Diversion, remark the Appearances of Nature, and store their Minds with many useful
observations, which they might communicate among their Patients, without the least
loss of Time or Interruption to the Duties of their Profession.

These observations were occasioned by a late Piece in your Paper, signed H.P.3—Who was the Author of that Piece, what were his Intentions, in Writing, whether to
do good or to do Evil, and why he chose that manner of conveying his Thoughts to the
public, it concerns not me to enquire. His professed design is not only good but important.
There is no subject, less understood, or less considered perhaps, by Men in general,
in this Province, even of the liberal Professions, than the Theory of Agriculture.
And the Writer, who should direct with success the Attention of inquisitive Minds,
to that Branch of Learning, whether he intended to befriend the public or to blow
it into flames, would certainly be the Occasion of much public Utility.

The particular subject which that Writer has chosen to recommend to the Consideration
of the Province, promises, more fairly than any other, private Profit to the farmer
and the Merchant, public Benefit to the Province, or perhaps Provinces in general,
as well as to Great Britain, the Parent and the Protector of them all; whose society
of Arts and &c. have discovered their kind concern for us, as well as their wise Care
for their native Country, by offering Praemiums and Encouragements, for the Raising
of this Commodity in New England as well as many other Ways. It is said that, “a Thousand
Weight to an Acre is an ordinary Crop of Hemp.” And it has been said too, by good
authority, that “an Acre of Land well tilled will produce a Tun Weight” and that “a
Tun of it, is worth sixty Pounds lawful Money.” It is said also that “several hundred
Thousand Pounds worth of foreign Hemp, are yearly expended in New England.” And it
is said too, that “Hemp may be raised on dreigned Lands,” and that “if we can raise
more than to supply our own Occasions we may send it Home.”

It was not without good sense, then that Mr. Plough Jogger undertook to recommend
this Plant to the Enquiries of the Curious, the Tryal of Husbandmen, the Encouragement
of Statesmen and the Industry of the Laborious.

Give me Leave therefore to do myself the Honour, to claim the Merit with my Countrymen
and their Posterity, of seconding without the least sneer or Banter, Mr. Ploughjogger,
in his Attempt to introduce and recommend this subject so important to the Consideration
and Industry of my fellow Countrymen, the Inhabitants of New England in General, and
of this Province in Particular.

Hemp is a Plant of great Importance in the Arts and Manufactories, as it furnishes
a great Variety of Threads, Cloths, and Cordage. It bears the nearest Resemblance
and Analogy, to Flax, in its Nature, the Manner of its Cultivation, and the Purposes
to which it serves. It must be annually sown afresh. It arises, in a little space
of Time, into a tall, slim, shrub, with an hollow stem. It bears a small round seed,
filled with a solid Pulp. Its Bark is a Tissue of Fibres, joined together with a soft
substance, which easily rots it. There are two Kinds of Hemp, Male and Female. The
Male only bears the seed, and from that seed arises both Male and Female.

The seed should be sown in the Month of May, in a warm, sandy, rich soil. They begin
to gather it about [the first of August],4 the female being soonest Ripe. The Proofs of its Ripeness, are the alteration of
the Colour of its leaves to Yellow, and its stalks to white. It must be pulled up
by the Roots, and then bound in Bundles. The Male should stand 8 or 10 days in the
Air, that the seed may ripen, which they afterwards get out, by cutting off the Heads
and threshing or beating them. It must then be watered by laying it about a Week in
a Pond, in order not to rot the Bark. I say a Pond, tho a Brook would be better if
it did not give the Water an unwholesome Quality. After it is taken out and dryed
the woody Part of the stem must be broken from the Bark which covers it, by crushing
it in an Instrument called a Brake, beginning at the Roots. After it has been sufficiently
broken, the small shivers must be swingled out, as we swingle Flax. When this is done
it must be beat on a Block or in a Trough, with an Hammer or with Beetles, till it
becomes soft and Pliable. When it has been well beaten, it must be heckled, or passed
thro a toothed Instrument, like the Clothiers Comb, to seperate the shorter Tow, from
that which is fit to be spun.

This is a very short Answer to Mr. Plough Joggers Inquiries, but if he or any other
Person has a Curiosity to see a more particular Account of this Plant, (and give me
leave to tell him and them there is not an Herb from the Cedar in Lebanon, to the
Hyssop in the Wall, that can be studied to more Advantage) let them consult the Compleat
Body of Husbandry, Chambers’s Dictionary, the Praeceptor and Nature delineated.

To conclude Let the World in general consider, that the Earth, and the seas and the
Air, are to furnish all Animals, with food and Raiment; that mere animal strength,
which is common to Beasts and Men, is not sufficient to avail us of any considerable
Part of the bountiful Provision of Nature; that our Understandings, as well as our
Arms and feet, must be employed in this service. And Let the few who have been distinguished
by greater intellectual Abilities than Mankind in general, consider, that Nature intended
them for Leaders of Industry. Let them be cautious of certain Airs of Wisdom and superiority
by which some Gentlemen of real sense and Learning, and Public spirit, giving offence
to the common People, have in some Measure defeated their own benevolent Intentions.
Let them not be too sparing of their Application or Expence, lest failing of visible
Profit and success they expose themselves to Ridicule and rational Husbandry itself
to Disgrace among the common People. Human Nature is not so stupid or so abandoned,
as many worthy men imagine, and even the common People, if their peculiar Customs
and Modes of thinking are a little studied, [are not] so ungrateful, or untractible, but that their Labours may be conducted, by the Genius
and Experience of a few, to very great and useful Purposes. U.

1. This draft appears in the middle of D/JA/9, between entries dated in Feb. 1763, but
it could not have been written before late June since it was evoked by a piece signed
“Humphrey Ploughjogger” in the Boston Evening-Post, 20 June 1763. There is the strongest ground for believing that JA himself wrote this and the other Ploughjogger pieces that appeared in that paper
this year, namely his own testimony, and that, accordingly, he was carrying on a dialogue
with himself in the two leading Boston papers (though the draft itself shows that
he first intended the present essay for the Evening Post rather than the Boston Gazette, where it eventually appeared). The question of his authorship of Ploughjogger’s
mildly facetious essays, all of them written in rustic dialect and phonetic spelling
anticipating the school of Artemus Ward, cannot and need not be gone into here, but
see JA to CA, 13 Feb. 1792 (MHi), and also a list of JA’s writings compiled by his nephew William Smith Shaw, in the CFA Miscellany (Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 327).

The draft as it stands in the Diary is very rough and has a number of additions at
the end, some of them keyed into the text by asterisks and some not. It could hardly
have been rationalized at all if a printed text had not been found which shows the
order of the material as JA finally wished it. The present text follows that final order, but only a few of the
many differences in phrasing between the draft and the newspaper version have been
noted.

2. In the newspaper text JA added at this point: “without enquiring into the Truth of the Observation, that the
Lawyers among us, are the most curious in Husbandry, which, if true, is unnatural
and accidental.”

3. The newspaper text reads, instead: “These Reflections have been occasion’d, by a late
Piece in the Evening-Post, signed Humphrey Ploughjogger.” The piece referred to appeared in the issue of 20 June and begins: “I arnt book
larnt enuff, to rite so polytly, as the great gentlefolks, that rite in the News-Papers,
about Pollyticks. I think it is pitty, they should know how to rite so well, saving
they made better use ont. And that they might do, if they would rite about some• { 251 } thing else.” Ploughjogger then suggests a fresh topic. “What I’me ater is, to get
some great larnt gentleman, who has been to Old Ingland, and knows how they raise
Hemp there, and can read books about it, and understand urn, to print in your News,
some direckshon, about it, that we may go to trying, for we cant afford to run venters,
by working, may be, a month and then have nothing come of it for want of working right.”

4. Bracketed words supplied from the newspaper text for a blank in MS.

Soon after I got to Boston, at Jany. Court Mr. Fitch came to me upon Change, and told
me, that Mr. Gridley and he had something to communicate to me, that I should like,
in Sacred Confidence however. I waited on Mr. Gridley, at his office, (after many
Conjectures what the secret might be) and he told me, That He and Mr. Fitch had proposed
a Law Clubb—a private Association, for the study of Law and oratory.—As to the Bar,
he thought of them, as he did think of them— Otis, Thatcher, Auchmuty. He was considering,
who was for the future to support the Honour and Dignity of the Bar. And he was determined
to bring me into Practice, the first Practice, and Fitch too. He could easily do it,
by recommending. And he was very desirous of forming a Junto, a small sodality, of
himself and Fitch and me, and Dudley3 if he pleased might come, in order to read in Concert the Feudal Law and Tullies
orations. And for this Purpose he lent me, the Corpus Juris Civilis in 4 Partes distinctum,
eruditissimis Dionysii Gothofredi J.C. clarissimi notis illustratum, at the End of
which are the Feudorum Consuetudines Partim ex Editione vulgata partim ex Cujaciana
vulgata, appositae, as also the Epitome Feudorum Dionysio Gothofredo Authore.4

We accordingly agreed to meet the next Evening in one of Ballards back Chambers and
determine upon Times, Places, and studies. We accordingly met the next Evening, Mr.
Gridley, Fitch and I, and spent the whole Evening. Proposals were to read a Reign
and the statutes of that Reign, to read Hurds Dialogues5 and any new Pieces. But at last we determined to read The Feudal Law and Cicero only,
least we should loose sight of our main Object, by attending to too many. Thurdsday
Nights were agreed on, and to meet first at Mr. Gridleys office. There we accordingly
met on the Thurdsday Night following, and suffered our Conversation to ramble upon
Hurds Dialogues, the Pandects, their Discovery in Italy by Lotharius in 1127, in the
Reign of Stephen, upon Lambard de priscis Anglorum Legibus, in Saxon and Latin, upon
Ld. Kaims [Kames], Mr. Blackstone &c. But we { 252 } agreed to meet the next Thurdsday night at Mr. Fitch’s, and to read the Three first
Titles of the feudal Law, and Tullies oration for Milo.

1. This heading, written in a very large hand, is on the inside front cover of “Paper
book No. 10” (D/JA/10), suggesting that JA planned to keep a separate record of the proceedings of this lawyers’ study club.
But after a few entries in Jan.–Feb. 1765 and some fragments of a first draft of his
essay on canon and feudal law, written for the club, the record breaks off. Very likely
the “sodality” itself did. A couple of extraneous entries made in Aug. 1765 follow
in D/JA/10, but the last half of this booklet consists of nothing but blank leaves.

For the year 1764 there are no Diary entries at all. Lists of legal cases among his
own papers indicate that JA continued to expand his practice; for example, a note from him to Samuel Quincy,
2 Jan. 1764 (MHi:Misc. Bound MSS), lists about forty cases JA wishes Quincy to enter for him in Boston. During the spring of 1764 he served on
a town committee to report a plan for repairing the highways by a tax (Braintree Town Records, p. 395–398). Most of April and part of May he spent with other patients at his uncle
James Cunningham’s house in Boston undergoing the somewhat dangerous and extremely
tedious process of inoculation against smallpox. His physician was Dr. Nathaniel Perkins,
Harvard 1734, and JA’s letters during this period probably embody as detailed an account as exists of
the preparatory regimen and actual process of smallpox inoculation in the 1760’s.

But the great event of 1764 was JA’s marriage to Abigail Smith of Weymouth. As early as February they were trying to
fix a date; see Hannah (Storer) Green to JA, 20 Feb. 1764 (Samuel Abbott Green, An Account of Percival and Ellen Green and Some of Their Descendants, Groton, Mass., p. 56–57). They were married on 25 October.

2. This entry appears to be retrospective and should probably have an earlier date. The
meeting of the sodality that actually occurred on 24 Jan. is recorded in the following
entry, the second so dated.

4. It is not possible to tell which of the numerous editions of Denis Godefroy’s Corpus Juris Civilis, first published in 1583, the club was using. As usual, JA’s quotations, even when copying directly from a printed text, are careless.

5. JA acquired his own copy of Richard Hurd’s Moral and Political Dialogues (3d edn., London, 1765; 3 vols.) in 1769, and it remains among his books in the Boston Public Library. JA made a partial marginal digest of the book when he read it, but he wrote only one
marginal comment. This appears at 3:40–41, where Hurd describes the awkward manners
of the typical young man who has “been well whipped through one of our public schools.”
He is, says Hurd, “An absurd compound of abject sentiments, and bigoted notions, on
the one hand; and of clownish, coarse, ungainly demeanour, on the other! In a word,
both in mind and person the furthest in the world from any thing that is handsome,
gentlemanlike, or of use and acceptance in good company!” Beside this JA wrote: “An exact description of a Dartmouth educated Schollar.”

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0009-0001-0002

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1765-01-24

Thurdsday January 24th. 1765.

I rode to Boston on Purpose to meet at Fitchs. Gridley came. We read the 3 first Titles
of the feudal Law, and We read Gothofreds Notes and We looked into Strykius for the
Explanation of many hard Words in those 3 Titles—The Valvasors, Capitanii, Guardia
and Guastaldi.1 This Strykius wrote an Examen Juris feudalis, by Way of { 253 } Question and Answer. His account of the original of the Consuetudines Feudorum is,
that they were collected and written by Gerardus Niger, and Obertus, the Consulls
of Milan.—We read also Part of Tully’s Milo—and are to read the 4th. and 5th Title
of The Feudal Law, and the rest of that oration next Thurdsday night.

The Law of Inheritances in England originates in the Feudal Law. Gilberts Tenures
originate there. Robinsons2 History of Scotland gives the clearest account of the Feudal system they say. Ld.
Kaims has given us the Introduction of the Feudal Law in to Scotland.—Q. What say
the Law Tracts and Dalrymple on this subject?

Gridley. Taylor observed to me when in England that no Books were more proper for Nisi prius
oratory, than the Examiner, Craftsman and such Controversial Writings of the best
Hands.

I expect the greatest Pleasure from this sodality, that I ever had in my Life—and
a Pleasure too, that will not be painfull to my Reflection.

Milo was condemned and went into Banishment, at Marseilles. There He afterwards read
the oration, which had been corrected and polished for his Perusal and sent to him
by Cicero, for a Present and an Amusement. Reading it, he broke out “si sic ejecisses
Marce Tulli barbatos Pisces non comedissem”—for he had been eating a sort of bearded
Fishes, that he found at Marseilles.3

2. Silently corrected by CFA to “Robertson’s.” See entry of 21 Feb. and note 2 there.

3. Various versions of this incident are recorded. According to JA’s text, Milo said: “If you had thus delivered [your speech in my favor], Marcus Tullius, I would not have eaten bearded fishes [in Marseilles].”

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0009-0001-0003

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1765-01-31

Thurdsday. Jany. 31st.

The snowy Weather prevented me from going to Dudleys. The Sodality however met and
read the two Titles assigned, and assigned the three next vizt. the 6th. Episcopum,
vel Abbatem veil Abbatissam, vel Dominum plebis feudum dare non posse. Tit. 7th. De
Natura Feudi, and Tit. 8th. De successione Feudi.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0009-0001-0004

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1765-02-21

Thurdsday. February 21st. 1765.

At Boston, entertained the Sodality at Blodgets. We were never in better Spirits,
or more Social. We began the 13th. Title of the feudal Law De Alienatione Feudi and
read three Titles. Gridley proposed that we should mark all those Passages, which
are adopted by the English Law, that when we come to read Ld. Coke we may recur back
upon Occasion, to the originals of our Law.

The 14th. Title is De Feudo Marchise, vel Ducatus vel Comitatus. Here therefore we
see the originals of English Dignities, Marquisates, Dukedoms, Countys &c. The 15th.
Title is an Maritus succedat Uxori in Feudo.

I quoted to my Brothers, the Preface to the Historical Law Tracts, “The feudal Customs
ought to be the Study of every Man, who proposes to reap Instruction from the History
of the modern European Nations, because among these Nations, public Transactions not
less than private Property, were some Centuries ago, regulated by the Feudal system.—
Sovereigns formerly were many of them connected by the Relation of Superiour and Vassal.
The King of England, for Example, by the feudal Tenure, held of the french King many
fair Provinces.”

I quoted also the sentiments of Rosseau, which are very inimical to the Feudal system.—“The
Notion of Representatives, says he, is modern, descending to us, from the Feudal system,
that most iniquitous and absurd Form of Government by which human Nature was so shamefully
degraded.”1

Fitch. The Feudal system was military. It was a martial system—a set of Regulations (as
Robinsons2 calls it) for the Incampment of a great Army—and it was a wise and good system, for
a martial People in such Circumstances. For the feudal Connections and subordination,
and services, were necessary for their Defence against the Inroads and Invasions of
their Neighbours, &c.

Ego. I think that the Absurdity and Iniquity lies in this, that Nations at Peace and
in Plenty who live by Commerce and Industry, have adopted such a system.

Gridley. There lies the Absurdity and Iniquity. And the observation you quote proves that
Rosseau is shallow.

I might have quoted Ld. Kaims’s British Antiquities, who says—“It is the Plan of the
feudal Law to bestow the whole Land property upon the King and to subject to him the
Bulk of the People, in Quality of Servants and Vassals; a Constitution so contradictory
to all the Principles which govern Mankind can never be brought about, one should
imagine, but by foreign Conquest, or native Usurpation.” And in another Place he calls
the feudal connection, the feudal Yoke.

In Milo We read from the 27th. to the 34th section in Davidsons Translation. We begin
the Peroration next. We had Guthries and Davidsons Translations. In Point of Accuracy
And Spirit Davidson’s is vastly Superiour.

Mr. Gridley produced a Book intituled in Herennium Commentarius, as an Introduction
to Tully De Oratore—and read the Three sorts of orations, the Demonstrative, Deliberative
and Judicial, and the several Parts of an oration, the Exordium &c.

Gridley. Our Plan must be, when we have finished the feudal Law, to read Coke Littleton,
and after him a Reign and the Statutes of that Reign. It should also be a Part of
our Plan, to improve ourselves in Writing, by reading carefully the best English Writers,
and by Using ourselves to writing—for it should be a part of our Plan to publish Pieces,
now and then. Let us form our Style upon the Ancients, and the best English Authors.

I hope and expect to see, at the Bar, in Consequence of this Sodality, a Purity, an
Elegance, and a Spirit, surpassing any Thing that ever appeared in America.3 Fich [Fitch] said that he would not say he had Abilities, but he would say he had Ambition enough
to hope for the same Thing.

1. A quotation from Jean Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social (1762), a work of which JA eventually owned at least three copies, a pirated edition in French, Amsterdam, 1742
[i.e. 1762?], and two copies of the first English translation, A Treatise on the Social Compact, or the Principles of Politic Law, London, 1764; see Catalogue of JA’s Library, p. 216. For an illuminating survey of JA’s intellectual relations with Rousseau, see Haraszti, JA and the Prophets of Progress, ch. 5, “Rousseau and the Man of Nature.”

2. That is, William Robertson’s History of Scotland, London, 1758–1759, a work with which JA was obviously not yet familiar.

3. CFA arbitrarily placed quotation marks around this sentence and thereby attributed it
to Gridley. The attribution is probably correct, but the sentence could be a reflection
of JA’s.

Docno: ADMS-01-01-02-0009-0002-0001

Author: Adams, John

Date: 1765-02

[Fragmentary Draft of a Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law, February 1765.]

This Sodality has given rise to the following Speculation of my own, which I commit
to writing, as Hints for future Enquiries rather than as a satisfactory Theory.1

The Desire of <Power><Power> Dominion, that encroaching, grasping, restless, and ungovernable Principle in human
Nature, that Principle which has made so much Havock and Desolation, among the Works
of God, in all the Variety of systems, that have been invented, { 256 } for its Gratification, was never so successfull, as in the Invention and Establishment
of the Cannon and the Feudal Law.—By the former the most refined, sublime, extensive,
and astonishing Constitution of Policy, that was ever conceived by the Human Mind,
was framed, by the Romish Clergy, for the Aggrandisement of their own order. This
Constitution will be allowed to deserve all the Epithets I have given it, when it
is considered, that they found Ways to make the World believe that God had entrusted
them with Keys of Heaven whose Gates they might open and shut at Pleasure, with the
Power of Dispensation over all the Rules and Types of Morality, the Power of licensing
all sorts both of sins and Crimes, with the Power of Deposing Princes, and absolving
all their subjects from their Allegiance, with the Power of Procuring or withholding
the Rain of Heaven, and the Beams of the Sun, with the Power of Earthquakes, <Plagues,> Pestilence, Famine; nay with the Power of creating Blood Nay the Blood of God out
of Wine, and Flesh the Flesh of God out of Bread. Thus was human Nature held for Ages,
fast Bound in servitude, in a cruel, shameful, deplorable Bondage to him and his subordinate
Tyrants who it was fortold in the Apocalypse, would exalt himself above all that is
called God and that is worshiped.

By the latter another system was formed similar to the former in some Respects, and
altho it was originally contrived perhaps for the necessary Defence of a barbarous
<Nation> People against the Inroads and Invasions of her neighbouring Nations; yet it was
soon adopted by almost all the Princes in Europe, and wrought into the Constitution
of their Governments for the same Purposes of Tyranny, Cruelty and Lust. This Constitution
was originally a Code of Laws for a vast Army, in a perpetual Encampment. The General
was invested with the Property of all the Land within [sentence unfinished]2

It3 was a Resolution formed by a sensible People almost in despair. They had become intelligent
in general, and some of them learned but they had been galled, and fretted, and whipped
and cropped, and hanged and burned. In short they had been so worried by Plagues and
Tortures in every Shape, and they utterly despaired of Deliverance from these Miseries
in their own Country, that they at last resolved to fly to the Wilderness, for Refuge
from the temporal and spiritual Principalities and Powers, and Plagues and scourges
of their Native Country.

After their Arrival here, they began their settlements and pursued their Plan both
of Ecclesiastical and Civil Government in direct Opposition to the Cannon And the
feudal systems.

Their first Concern was to preserve and propagate Knowledge. The leading Men among
the first Settlers of America, were Men of sense and Learning. And the Clergymen,
who came over first, were familiar with the Historians, Orators, Poets and Phylosophers
of Greece and Rome, and many of them have left behind them Libraries which are still
in Being consisting chiefly of Books, whose Character their great Grand sons can scarcely
read.4

I always consider the settlement of America with Reverence and Wonder—as the Opening
of a grand scene and Design in Providence, for the Illumination of the Ignorant and
the Emancipation of the slavish Part of Mankind all over the Earth.

their great grand sons, tho educated at European Universities, can scarcely read.
Archbishop King him self, (I think it was, for I say this upon Memory) observed of
the Puritans in General, that they were much more intelligent, and better read than
the Members of the Church whom he reproaches, and censures very warmly for that Reason.

Provision was early made by Law, that every Town should be accommodated with a grammar
school—under a severe Penalty—so that even Negligence of Learning was made a Crime,
a Stretch of Wisdom in Policy that was never equalled before nor since unless by the
ancient Egyptians who made the Want of Generosity and Humanity a Capital Crime.

But besides the Obligation laid on every Town to provide the means of Learning, a
Colledge nay a Number of Colledges were formed very early, and a very early Attention
to them from the Legislature, exempted from Military Duties—exemptions from Taxes,
and many other Encouragements have taken Place. And in fine We their Posterity, have
seen the Fruits and Consequences of the Wisdom and Goodness of our Forefathers. All
Ranks and orders of our People, are intelligent, are accomplished—a Native of America,
especially of New England, who cannot read and wright is as rare a Phenomenon as a
Comet.

Remainder of the Piece begun in our last.—

Thus accomplished were the first Settlers of these Colonies—and as has been said,
Tyranny in every shape, was their Disdain and Abhorrence. No <Kind of> Fear of Punishment not even of Death itself, in exquisite Torture had been sufficient
to conquer that steady, manly, { 258 } | view pertinacious Spirit, with which they opposed the Tyrants of those Days in Church and
state. And their greatest Concern seems to have been to establish a Government of
the Church, more consistent with the scriptures, and a Government of the state more
agreable to the Dignity of human Nature, than they had ever seen in Europe. They knew
that beautiful were the feet &c. But They saw clearly, that of all the <ridiculous> Nonsense, Delusion, and Frenzy that had ever passed thro the Mind of Man, none had
ever been more glaring and extravagant than the Notions of the Cannon Law, of the
indellible Character, the perpetual succession, the virtuous and sanctified Effluvia
from Episcopal Fingers, and all the rest of that dark Ribaldry which had thrown such
a Glare of Mistery, Sanctity, Reverence and Right Reverence, Eminence and Holiness
around the Idea of a Priest [sentence unfinished]

1. The paragraphs that follow comprise JA’s first thoughts for the important and eloquent essay to which he gave no name but
which later became known as “A Dissertation on Canon and Feudal Law.” (In his Autobiography
JA observed that “It might as well have been called an Essay upon Forefathers Rock”—
i.e. what is now known as Plymouth Rock.) The date here assigned to this very rough
draft is conjectural, but since it immediately follows the Diary entry of 21 Feb.
1765, being separated from it only by a line across the page, we can say with some
confidence that JA began putting down these detached thoughts late in February. He may, of course, have
continued them in the following weeks or even months.

Much revised and expanded from the early draft, JA’s essay was published in the Boston Gazette, without a signature of any kind, in four parts, 12 and 19 Aug., 30 Sept., and 21
Oct. 1765, whence it was reprinted in the London Chronicle in corresponding installments, 23 and 28 Nov., 3 and 26 Dec. 1765, under a title
furnished by Thomas Hollis: “A Dissertation on the Feudal and the Canon Law.” For its subsequent bibliographical history, see CFA’s valuable but not completely reliable introductory note to his reprint in JA’s Works, 3:447–448. No attempt is made in the present text of the draft to show the variations
between it and the published version, but readers who wish to see how JA used and revised his first thoughts will find nearly all of them embedded in the
final version as reprinted in his Works, in the following order: p. 449–450, 451–452, 455–456, 452–453. It should be noted
that the draft contains rudiments of only the first three parts of the essay as printed
in the newspapers; the last installment, with its references to the Stamp Act (passed
22 March 1765), was doubtless composed later.

2. An interval of space follows at this point in the MS, denoting a gap in the draft.

3. That is, the Puritans’ decision to leave England and settle in America. (In the next
sentence JA wrote the word “Puritans” above the initial “They.”)

4. Last four words interlined. Evidently the next paragraph (which is the only substantial
passage in the draft not in the text as printed in the Boston Gazette) was an afterthought, and the passage after that originally continued the present paragraph.